A hot topic these days are how bad traffic has gotten over the past month or so. There are lots of reasons why this is happening – more reopening of the economy with no more negative lists and restrictions in businesses allowed to operate, Raya open houses, full reopening of schools, and more businesses ending their work from home policies.
Recently I spent a total of 6 hours on the road, travelling across the Klang Valley from Shah Alam to Subang to Cheras and back for various appointments. The next day, my knees started feeling a little funny going down stairs and I felt a general stiffness in my leg muscles.
You see, the human body isn’t really made to be in a sitting position for a long period of time. This is why you’re always advised to get up, stretch and walk around every half an hour if you’re at a desk job.
But driving a car can be a lot worse than a desk job. You’re further restricted to be in a certain position because of the steering wheel and pedal positions. And you certainly can’t stand up to walk around if you’re stuck in a 1-2 hour traffic jam can you?
Stuck in a sitting position for a long time crushes your hamstring (back of your thigh) and glute (butt) muscles under the full weight of your body. Your hip flexor (muscle that pulls your leg up at the hip joint) muscle also gets tight because it’s in a contracted position for a long time.
There is such a thing called “dead butt syndrome” or “gluteal amnesia” where your butt muscles weaken because you’re always sitting down. Your body basically forgets what their purpose are and how to use them.
Your glutes are supposed to be big and strong to help support your posture and when they’re taken out of play, you lose an important support pillar, and the result can be all kinds of pains and aches here and there – in your knees, and in your lower back.
We all know how many Malaysians have issues in their knees and backs right? This is because we sit all the way to the office in the traffic jam, and then we continue to sit at our desks and sit in the traffic jam all the way home again.
If you spend hours in traffic everyday like me, it would be a good idea to do some exercises everyday to counter the effects of being in a sitting position for extended periods. It would be really beneficial for you to do them even if you’re not a gym rat so you won’t be affected by “dead butt syndrome”.
You can do either one of these two exercises in these videos I have embedded. They will help strengthen your weakened glutes, and isolate them to do some work to remind your body that they exist.
Choose whichever you feel more comfortable doing. I prefer the single leg hip thrust as I prefer it to lying flat on the floor. I use the couch at my office as the place to anchor the middle of my back. Just do 3 sets of up to 10 reps each, per side. It’s okay if you cannot do 10 when you start off, just keep going at it.
This is a good simple way to start if you don’t have much time in your day, as it’s only 3 sets of one exercise and shouldn’t take too much time. If you’re interested to progress further, then you can start looking for a personal trainer to get professional advice.
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Good advise. Nice.
Best advice is to use public transports but oh wait, we kicked out Father of Public Transport PM when certain parties played politics with rakyat sentiments. So the bad jams and delayed public infra is what we deserve for the wrong choices we made. Can it be corrected, sure, but it will be more years lost.
Now 65% more RON97 users switching to RON95 will burden gomen even more subsidy(every liter >RM1.70 in early April). Literally gomen is paying more for every litre we buy RON95 now
So to resolve traffic jams and promote public transport usage, gomen please market-float RON95 @RM4.50
Once fuel subsidy is removed, whatever foreign vehicles pump also OK. Anyway our EURO4 fuel is cheaper than EURO6 in SG
it stings have tried
Jam in Jalan Lapangan Terbang Shah Alam is due to damn toll. All cars queued into toll road and blocking toll free road. Just implement free flow toll system
Well. Due to cobis and tax free on cars, people prefers to drive.
Buy car with comfortable seat
Buy Kancil. Delete front passenger seat. You can stretch your leg from rear seat during heavy traffic jam.
Kancil is for B40… oh wait!!! Rarely seen a kancil these days, all must be rich already!!!
Your comment doesn’t add any value to the conversation
Beli Shopee,
1. Quality ABS Leather Arm Rest RM60 .
2. Quality Memory Foam Support.
3. Massage Gaming Chair @ Home RM1k+
4. Exercise @ Home follow Paultan advice.
Comfortable and Healthy always.
Even Saga aXia car sofa already more comfortable than most of the House Sofa/Gaming Chair.
Kete mana tak ada sofa Selesa?
Reopening of the economy but not the public transportation system is the main cause of congestion.
LRTs and MRT are not at 2019 level and buses are even worse than before. Even with horrible jam, it is still much faster to drive than to take public transports.
There are more people who are now taking public transport instead of cars, keep selling more cars and fill up more population on the road or highway turns into ugly that will make more traffic jams. Public transport will make less jams and better than taking cars
Solutions(Possible)
A.Charge for cars entering CBD
B.Upgrade feeder bus intensity,to LRTs
C.Build more flyovers(burden rakyat again,thro taxes or toll)
D.More WFH for employees
E.Do nothing,and let roads become carparks at peak hours
F.Fire the inefficient transport Minister(Unlikely move)
G.Get all the kementerian mgrs for brainstorming..if still the ” kami akan memantau solution” fire all of them!Hire new ones.
H.If still cannot,then we will become another Bangkok or Mexico City..3-4 hrs jam for short distance .Simple..no need Putin’s sarmat ICBM science.
Free toll before 6.30am, and 50% discount between 9,30pm to 12pm.
To reward ppl who want to avoid traffic jam.
We will have Malaysian parking at roadside waiting for price to change
Nice one!!
Solution BTTF. Get a DeLorean, go back in time, change course of May 2018 history, public transport network will be up by now, we would not be having this conversation today
I feel sorry to the people of Malaysia for this Putin lover unending BS talk against my great nation who he raped with his callous words. I stand in solidarity with you, people of Malaysia, in condemning this guy and for him he deserves our Neptune missile. Do pobachenn’a!
Rakyat Malaysia stands together with people of Ukraine against aggression & trolling by Russia, Putin lovers, PH dan macais sewaktu dgn mereka.
Hello..MAA annual sales projection 550000-600000 cars
Used car sales annually ,say 500,000.
So total,berapa? 1 million plus cars added on the road. In 10 years, 10 million cars addition.In 10 years how many babies were born? Car growth is exponential compared to population increase.Can u see why the jams are there?
Our Ahsiongkor,faham? You need KJ from Oxford Uni to give free lecture?
How do you make solution:
– Urging that sst tax exemption as tax holiday must not continue forever
– Impose new cars that is didn’t follow lemon law
– By lessen traffic jams, it is needed to improve road condition
– Expand more lanes for every highways to lessen traffic jams
– Encouraging to public transport to reduce traffic jams on the road
Solve the traffic jam problem!
Easy increase fuel price to rm5
And enough of sst tax exemption and time to implement lemon law
Try Nissan Zero gravity seats.
The concession on new car sales tax had markedly increased the car population of Klang Valley. Many Malays bought new cars to balik kampung in style, thus making KL no better than Jakarta and Bangkok.
Our retarded Govt had not been lifting a finger to improve the feeder bus service to and fro LRT/MRT stations such as a dedicated bus lane etc
Motor, ego sangat nak kereta gak kenapa? Ooo, jatuh standard naik motor so layan jelah jem tu . Mati tu pasti.
Move to seremban better…
current public transport stings …improve public transport MRT LRT n monorail shd every 3min during peak period
remove cars 》10yrs.increase road tax
introduce CBD toll
nor single driver other than public transport
Managers/Bosses asked their staffs to go back to office while ignoring the fact that the jam is becoming unbearable because they themselves come in at 11am and go back at 4pm.
Malaysia? Pfft! Me too
https://electrek.co/2022/06/01/elon-musk-tesla-employees-come-back-office-or-quit/
I have 2 cars but it takes 1.5 hours to drive to work and another 1.5 hours to get home.
My solution? Get a motorcycle.
Now I save 2 hours a day for work commute and use the time to exercise for 1 hour and the ohter hour for some badly needed sleep.
I’d rather take the risk and live a healthy and joyful life than to be very safe but miserable life.
To each its own…
Riding bike to work is ok for people doing hard labour job, people won’t notice it if you sweat or when your face covered with dust. For those at higher position that need to look presentable will still need cars to commute.
And don’t start comparing with Sweden, Denmark or Netherland. These places are not as dusty, hot and humid.
2 hour saved per day,
44hours saves per month.
44hours of car petrol consumption,
Maybe can buy Life Insurance RM200k – RM500k.
Peace of Mind.
Very good article, thanks for sharing. Keeping our body healthy is the most important thing in life.
hopefully all cars will be completely AI-driven in the near future. then we can just do exercises in the car, while stuck in traffic. or have a meal with our family, while stuck in traffic. or make love. whatever man, coz the car is self-driving. we can make the best out of the time spent while stuck in traffic because we dont need to be driving.