The truth about sitting
The truth about sitting
Sitting and its harmful effects have been a hot topic in the last few years; sitting has even been called the new tobacco. The claim might seem like an overstatement, but when we look deeper into the marks sitting leaves into our body, we’ll understand it better.
Over 80% of people suffer from some degree of back pain during their life. You might have
sometimes noticed how sitting for a long time has made a pain in the lower back worse or increased aches in the shoulders and neck. These are very common problems that can be caused by sitting for long times. Maintaining an ergonomic posture while sitting takes a lot of work from our stabiliser muscles, so our body doesn’t sink forward into a slumped sitting position.
A Norwegian study from the year 2017, on the other hand, showed that the risk for getting type 2 diabetes is 17% higher for those who sit for more than 8 hours a day compared to those who sit for less than four hours a day (1). Studies have also detected substantial passiveness and lack of physical activity as risk factors for cardiovascular disease (2).
In addition to exposure to diabetes and cardiovascular disease, sitting affects our well-being in other ways too.
How sitting affects your well-being
Energy consumption is reduced MET value (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) depicts the physical exertion related to different sports and everyday tasks and measured in this scale, sitting gets the value 1.0, which is very low. When we sit, the large muscles that maintain our position become passive, which leads to lower consumption of energy, slower metabolism, and reduced circulation.
The lower consumption of energy increases the risk of accumulating excess weight, and the slow circulation makes the veins contract due to the lower burden on them. Reduced blood flow decreases the oxygen supply to muscles, brains, and tissues.
Without an adequate supply of oxygen, the muscles get tired easily, metabolic waste accumulates in the body and thinking might slow down.
Headaches and dizziness are some of the most common symptoms caused by low blood oxygen.
Breathing becomes shallow
Our posture affects how well we can breathe. The diaphragm is the most important muscle in the human body for breathing. It can only function optimally when we have good posture. When we sit down, it doesn’t take long for our body to start slumping and posture to disappear. A slumped position curves the back and causes the chest to sink, which makes it more difficult for the diaphragm to work. When the diaphragm isn’t able to function optimally breathing becomes shallow: our capacity to breathe effectively is reduced, and shallow breathing increases the levels of stress hormones and slows down our recovery.
Practice diaphragmatic breathing
Stop for a moment and try diaphragmatic breathing for a few breaths. It helps to reduce stress, lower your blood pressure, and lower the heartbeat. Deep breaths also increase the ability to concentrate.
Start by adjusting your posture. You can close your eyes if you want to and then breathe in. Let the stomach and chest expand when you breathe in. When you breathe out, the chest, diaphragm, and stomach relax. If your stomach doesn’t expand when you inhale, you know your breathing is shallow. If this is the case, it’s important to learn deep breathing.
You can do this breathing exercise for a moment, for example, in the evening before you go to sleep.
Worse posture
Can you estimate how long the muscles in the back can keep your body in a good position before they get tired and your position starts to resemble slumped learning forward? The answer to this question is only 30 minutes; after sitting for half an hour, the muscles supporting the back start to get tired, and the working position becomes more and more unfavourable.
Because of sitting, our posture gets worse: the back curves, head moves forward, shoulders rotate forward, muscles in the back are stressed, and intervertebral discs are unevenly burdened. The changes in posture also affect the functions and health of the intestines as the abdominal cavity is pressed between the chest and pelvis.
Tightening of the muscles
Staying stationary for a long time causes some muscles to shorten and keeps others constantly stretched. A long passive stretch is not good for the muscles as the muscle starts to adjust to this state slowly, and the normal position is distorted. As a result of the change in position, it becomes harder for us to adjust balance during movement.
If we look at the sitting position in more detail, we can see that it’s not normal for humans.
When we sit on a chair, the thighs and the body form a 90-degree angle, when the normal range of movement is around a third less than that. This position itself is forcing us into the wrong position. Glutes weaken, and muscles start to shorten when you’re sitting.
The first thing I want to mention is the hip flexors, which especially suffer from continuous sitting.
The lack of movement causes tightening in the muscles, which, on the other hand, leads to wrong positions and problems that follow from them. Shorter hip flexors harm the position of the hips, which results in more stress on the vertebra.
Another group of muscles that easily tighten is the chest muscles. When they tighten, they cause the shoulder to turn forward. As the chest muscles at the front shorten, the back muscles around the shoulder blades, for example, have to stretch continuously. These changes expose you to different neck and shoulder problems.
Back pain and problems
Sitting can expose you to more back pain. This is largely due to the posture distortions that create more pressure in the intervertebral discs. Sitting for long times doesn’t allow us to spend time in a neutral position which puts the intervertebral discs under a lot of pressure and in the worst case can lead to a slipped disc.
The reduced metabolism and circulation also affect the intervertebral discs negatively, which can contribute to different back problems.
Problems and aches in the neck and shoulders
People who work on the computer often complain about problems in the neck and shoulders, and it’s no wonder. When you’re working on a computer, an ergonomic position is often maintained for only a few short moments before slumping. Computer work and using mobile devices exposes the head to tilt forward, which is one of the most common incorrect positions around the cervical vertebrae.
The head itself weighs around 5 kilos, and the burden it causes grows with forward head posture. When the cervical vertebra moves 15 degrees forward from the neutral position, it can increase the pressure on the muscles of the neck and shoulder area to up to 12 kilos. A 60-degree shift in position increases the stress to nearly six times normal.
When the neck extensor muscles move from the neutral position, they experience strain from
gravity Stress in the muscles weaken the circulation and metabolism in the area. The most common symptoms for the neck and shoulders are headache and dizziness.
Counteraction for sitting
In modern society, we should keep in mind that our bodies were made to move, and movement maintains our good health. It’s important to note that even if we exercise a one-hour exercise session is not enough to overcome an otherwise passive lifestyle if we spend the other part of the day sitting passively.
Finally, I will share some tips that will help you counter sitting and its harmful effects.
1) Take breaks during the working day
If your work involves sitting daily, it would be good to get up from your chair now and again. If
possible, set your phone alarm to go off every 30 minutes and spend some time on your feet. You can take a short walk or do some exercises that open up the body or do a couple of squats. With small micro breaks, you can break up the time you spend in the static sitting position and activate your muscles while stimulating your metabolism and circulation. The mind refreshes, and you will perform your work tasks better!
2) Electric desk
If it’s possible to work on an electric desk at your workplace, use this opportunity. The electric desk allows you to adjust the position you work in from standing to sitting throughout the day. Note that you should take some time to get used to the standing position if you have always worked sitting down. You should pay attention to posture while you stand as well as when you sit. If you notice your posture getting worse, it’s time for a short break.
3) A short mobility exercise daily
Do at least a short mobility exercise daily. It’s better to practice mobility a few minutes each day than to do one longer exercise each week. Listen to your body and train at least your problem areas with a few exercises that open them up daily. Take around 10 minutes in the evening that you can use on dynamic stretching of foam rolling.
Check Anatomic Functional FREE PROGRAMS
1) Bjørn O. Åsvold, Kristian Midthjell, Steinar Krokstad, Vegar Rangul &Adrian Bauman; 2017 Prolonged sitting may increase diabetes risk in physically inactive individuals: an 11 year follow-up of the HUNT Study, Norway.
2) Vassankari Ville; 2018 Sedentary behaviour, physical activity, and risk of coronary artery disease and diabetes mellitus, Finland.
