“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You’ve
heard this claim. Soft Health and Healing Clinic sees the effects of sitting in our
Brooks chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain
and related issues. Let’s explore
sitting and being sedentary workers and what we can do
about it.
SITTING COMPARISON TO SMOKING
Is the sitting and smoking a little harsh?
Maybe. One medical report uncovered that 300 news articles cite this claim! (1) Glaring or not, it does draw attention to the issue that
sitting a lot isn’t healthy for anyone. 25% of adults including Brooks
chiropractic patients and adults sit more than 8 hours daily.
Older adults are said to sit for even more time.
(2) Soft Health and Healing Clinic knows we all sit. We’re not
shaming you! We are with you!
THE STATE OF NSCLBP in SEDENTARY WORKERS
Sitting is what we do. Researchers report to us
that low back pain
sufferers’ activity levels are low. Of 300 patients, 32.5% lead sedentary
lives, 48.5% had underactive lifestyles, and 68.3% of them did
not do any activity to enhance muscle strength
or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting presented a risk for
all-cause mortality separate from physical
activity even if it’s of moderate to vigorous effort. The best
suggestion is to decrease sitting time
not just boost physical activity levels. (4) Soft Health and Healing Clinic encourages
both, too!
WHAT CAN WE DO? EXERCISE (AND A BONUS: RESPIRATION
IMPROVEMENT)
One author asserted the conundrum
of the “exercise to buffer sitting’s effect” implication as an
“inconvenient truth”: a few weekly visits to the gym
isn’t able to really erase a lifetime of sitting. He
also shared that fixing the sitting issue by standing has its
own problems (beyond its being uncomfortable!) like varicose
veins and foot pain. (5) So what then, particularly
for low back pain sufferers? Dynamic strengthening exercises – those that concentrate
on core and global stabilization as well as endurance in stabilizing
musculature – displayed better improvement in pain relief and better
function particularly in the lumbar multifidus and transversus
abdominus which are 2 muscles that low back pain bothers.
(6) More precisely, a 20-week lumbar stabilization exercise
and muscle strengthening exercise program reduced low back pain
and functional disability in sedentary workers. A lumbar stabilization exercise
program was more effective and persisted
for 12 weeks. (7) A bonus to lumbar segmental stabilization
exercise is that it activated the deep muscles and boosted
respiratory function and pressure in chronic low back pain patient who experienced
segmental instability. (8) Respiration is a big deal! Another study
demonstrated that forced breathing exercise therapy effectively improved
trunk stability and daily living activities in chronic low back pain patients, especially
for those with chronic lumbago in whom these exercises eased
pain. (9) Exercise helps! It is not
everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a piece
of the puzzle.
CONTACT Soft Health and Healing Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. Shawn Nelson on The Back Doctors Podcast about The
Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management’s role in back pain
management to help a runner re-gain his stride despite his facet syndrome back
pain condition that irritates us sitting folks.
Schedule you Brooks chiropractic appointment
with Soft Health and Healing Clinic today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue describes
you and back pain complicates it, Brooks
chiropractic care is for you…together with striving
to not sit that much and exercising a little
more!