Effects of Sitting Combatted by Carrolltown Exercise and Not Sitting!
“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You have surely heard it. 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 us look at sitting and being sedentary workers and what our options might be.
SITTING COMPARISON TO SMOKING
Is the sitting and smoking a little harsh? Maybe. One medical report found that 300 news articles mention this claim! (1) Harsh or not, it does highlight the issue that sitting a lot is not healthy for anyone. 25% of adults including Carrolltown chiropractic patients and adults sit more than 8 hours daily. Older adults are said to sit even more. (2) Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation realizes we all sit. We are not shaming you! We’re with you!
THE STATE OF NSCLBP in SEDENTARY WORKERS
Sitting is what we do. Researchers document that the activity level of low back pain suffers is low. Of 300 patients, 32.5% lead sedentary lives, 48.5% live underactive lifestyles, and 68.3% of them didn’t do any activity to boost muscle strength or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting created a risk for all-cause mortality independent of physical activity even if it’s of moderate to vigorous effort. The best suggestion is to reduce sitting time 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 wipe away a lifetime of sitting. He also contended that fixing the sitting issue by standing has its own issues (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 especially in the lumbar multifidus and transversus abdominus which are 2 muscles that low back pain affects. (6) More precisely, a 20-week lumbar stabilization exercise and muscle strengthening exercise program decreased low back pain and functional disability in sedentary workers. A lumbar stabilization exercise program proved more helpful 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 important! Another study showed that forced breathing exercise therapy effectively improved trunk stability and daily living activities in chronic low back pain patients, particularly for those with chronic lumbago in whom these exercises decreased pain. (9) Exercise helps! It isn’t everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a piece of the puzzle.
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 describes you and back pain makes matters worse, Carrolltown chiropractic care is for you…in addition to striving to not sit that much and exercising a little more!
