“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You have surely
heard this claim. Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation sees the effects of sitting in our
Carrolltown chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain
and associated issues. Let’s look at
sitting and being sedentary workers and what our options might be.
SITTING COMPARISON TO SMOKING
Is the sitting and smoking a little glaring?
Maybe. One medical report uncovered that 300 news articles mention this claim! (1) Glaring or not, it does draw attention to the concern that
sitting a lot isn’t healthy for anyone. 25% of adults Carrolltown
chiropractic patients and adults included sit more than 8 hours daily.
Older adults are said to sit for even more time.
(2) Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation realizes 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 tell 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 didn’t do any activity to enhance muscle strength
or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting posed a risk for
all-cause mortality independent of physical
activity even if it’s of moderate to vigorous effort. The best
suggestion is to decrease the quantity of sitting
not just increase physical activity levels. (4) Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation urges
both, too!
WHAT CAN WE DO? EXERCISE (AND A BONUS: RESPIRATION
IMPROVEMENT)
One author opined the challenge
of the “exercise to buffer sitting’s effect” suggestion as an
“inconvenient truth”: a few weekly visits to the gym
can’t really erase a lifetime of sitting. He
also contended that fixing the sitting issue by standing has its
own issues (beyond its being uncomfortable!) like foot pain and varicose veins. (5) So what then, especially
for low back pain sufferers? Dynamic strengthening exercises – those that focus
on core and global stabilization as well as endurance in stabilizing
musculature – displayed better improvement in pain relief and better
function especially in the lumbar multifidus and transversus
abdominus which are 2 muscles that low back pain bothers.
(6) More specifically, 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 proved more helpful and lasted
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 had
segmental instability. (8) Respiration is important! Another study
showed that forced breathing exercise therapy effectively enhanced
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 works! It isn’t
everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a part of the solution.
CONTACT Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation
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 Carrolltown chiropractic appointment
with Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue defines
you and back pain makes matters worse, Carrolltown
chiropractic care is for you…together with striving
to not sit so much and exercising a bit
more!