Posts Tagged ‘Sitting’

Sitting and Back Pain

Today’s fast paced society does not lend itself to taking much time for your health and fitness. Most people wake up, get in the car for a long commute, sit at work for eight hours, get back in the car to go home, and then sit on the couch until they go to bed. This complete lack of movement on a day-to-day basis is not only hard on our bodies, but it also de-trains correct movements of the body. Sitting is so detrimental to our bodies in many ways. Considering that most people sit for the majority of the day this presents a HUGE problem. These are just some of the ways that sitting can make you un-fit:

* Lack of ‘perfect’ posture puts excessive forces through your spine
* Causes ‘muscle amnesia’ and weakens important muscles
* Can alter the curvature of your spine which leads to many problems
* Reduces blood and nutrient flow throughout the body that keeps muscles and joints healthy

The first point is really important to understand. Sitting in poor posture for as little as 20 minutes can begin to stress tissues and cause functional abnormalities. Now, if you take the fact that most people sit with poor posture the entire day this excessive force is being absorbed by many tissues that are not equipped to handle it. This leads to shortening of some tissues and lengthening of others. Your body adapts to this position of poor posture because it must sustain it for long periods of time. Once this change occurs it completely affects how your low back functions. If you sit 80% of the time that you are awake how can you expect your body to move properly when you want it to be active? Read more…