The Evils of Sitting

Each year, at least $50 billion is spent to treat lower back pain. This pain is not always created by an isolated incident. It is often brought on when muscles are underused, underdeveloped, imbalanced, and therefore inadequate. This is only one of a handful of potential problems that comes from us sitting on our butts all day. Alongside of that back pain, you might find yourself with some neck pain, maybe a little carpal tunnel, and a few extra inches around that midsection. The research is out there. If you sit for extended periods of time, you will shorten your life. This is one of the most easily avoidable things. All you have to do is get up and move!

If that didn't worry you about the ills of sitting, here are 9 more items that might...

1. According to a study in the British Medical Journal, reducing the average time you spend sitting to less than three hours per day could increase your life expectancy by two years, which is a significant decrease from the 4.5 to 5 hours per day the average American now spends on a chair or sofa.
2. Men who were sedentary for more than 23 hours a week had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who were sedentary less than 11 hours a week, according to a 2010 study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
3. A study of more than 17,000 Canadians found that the mortality risk from all causes was 1.54 times higher among people who spent most of their day sitting, compared to those who sat infrequently.
4. According to an Australian study, sitting time is a predictor of weight gain among women, even after controlling for calories consumed and leisurely physical activity, such as exercise.
5. People who use a computer for at least 11 hours per week or watch TV for more than 21 hours per week are more likely to be obese than those who use a computer or watch TV for more than 5 hours per week.
6. Your risk of metabolic syndrome rises in a dose-dependent manner depending on your "screen time" (the amount of time you spend watching TV or using a computer). Physical activity has only a minimal impact on the relationship between screen time and metabolic syndrome.
7. A regular fitness regimen might be insufficient to counteract the effects of excessively sedentary habits during the remaining hours of the day. Even if people meet the current recommendation of 30 minutes of physical activity on most days each week, there may be significant adverse metabolic and health effects from prolonged sitting – the activity that dominates most people's remaining 'non-exercise' waking hours. Researchers have dubbed this phenomenon the "active couch potato effect."
8. After just an hour of sitting, the production of enzymes that burn fat in your body declines by as much as 90 percent. Extended sitting slows your body's metabolism of glucose and decreases your HDL, which is the type of lipid you want MORE of, instead of less. This explains why those who sit habitually for extended periods of time have higher risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems.
9. The problem is so bad that medical experts now equate sitting with smoking, saying that sitting as little as two hours continuously increases risk for heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancer, back and neck pain (among other orthopedic problems) and will literally shorten your life, just like smoking.​

Most of the structural problems associated with sitting come from sitting in an unnatural position for extended periods of time. Most back, neck, and other muscle pains are related to imbalanced absorption of force throughout your body, created by working in these unnatural positions. One solution: stand up and do your work. For some this may not be an option. If that's the case, change your seated position, and change it often. Readjust and realign your body every 20-30 minutes all while maintaining proper body alignment. If you have some time throughout the day, perform the following sequence "borrowed" from Kelly Starrett of Supple Leopard fame. This sequence will help reverse some of the effects of sitting in a flexed hipped position with your shoulders rolled forward.

1. Stand up with your with feet pointing straight forward or slightly inward.
2. Create some tension in your core by slightly tightening your abdominals (this is not an extreme tightening – just to 20 percent of your max)
3. Correct your shoulder position by externally rotating your shoulders and arms (rolling your shoulders back), which brings your shoulder blades closer together, your chest up and forward, and your thumbs pointing away from your body
4. While keeping your shoulders externally rotated, turn your hands back to neutral, so that your thumbs are now facing forward
5. Once you've done all that, it is time to realign the pelvis. Roll the weight of the feet to the outside of the arch and then squeeze those glute muscles. Take a 10-15 second hold, pause for a second, and then repeat. Perform this as many times as you like throughout the day!

Sitting down has always been a part of what we do as humans. It is just that the way we sit has changed over the years. Some chairs now look like a space shuttle ready for launch. A little extra "lumbar support" may not be the answer to your problems. The answer to your problems could be sitting up tall with your shoulders back. Or  maybe it is eliminating the forward head positioning as you look at your laptop or cellular device. Or it could possibly mean sitting on or near the edge of your chair with an upright posture and not slouching back into the back rest. These little tricks could save you a few trips to the chiropractor and away from the surgeons knife. And if none of those things work for you, get up out of your seat every 20-30 minutes and wake those muscles up in your body that have been sitting dormant for the past however many years sitting in your favorite chair.

​The sun just popped out, it is time to get out and do a little work!
Chris Fluck

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