Sitting is the New Smoking

Sitting for prolonged periods can be a major cause of back pain, cause increased stress of the back, neck, arms, and legs and can add a tremendous amount of pressure to the back muscles and spinal discs. No matter how comfortable you are at your desk, prolonged, static posture is not good for your back. The full article can be found in the following podcast.

This rise of this ‘sitting as a bad habit’ idea refers to a chair sitting and the ubiquity of the chair as an essential feature of domestic and work life in the last two centuries and especially epidemic in the last two decades. In 1990, the online world took on a more recognizable form, when computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. The web helped spread the internet among the public and served as a crucial step in developing the vast trove of information that most of us now access daily. With astonishing speed, the amount of time we spend in chairs with planes trains, and automobiles, in front of entertainment, eating, waiting for doctors and children, and most of all working – meetings with people and computer screens. At work, at school, in transit, at the computer – we are in the midst of an inactivity crisis.

Up to 90% more pressure is put on your back when you sit versus when you stand. There are several reasons why, the first being that if you’re like most Americans, you habitually sit in ways that cause tension and imbalance in your back and neck. This applies to sitting at work, in the car, and at home. Lots of sitting can start a cascade of events in the core and legs that results in several problems. When sitting for an extended period, the hip flexors are in their shortened position, which can prevent the glutes from firing, making them weak, and will cause the hamstrings to overwork. This results in anterior pelvic tilt, which is an excessive tilt of the pelvis. anterior pelvic tilt can cause the abs to become underused and weak, which will make the pelvis tilt, even more, making the sitter look like they have a bigger stomach than they actually do. Anterior pelvic tilt can cause low back pain, poor movement mechanics (when you walk, do sports, and many activities), and reciprocal inhibition (when one muscle on one side of a joint relaxes because the opposing muscle is engaged).

Injuries resulting from sitting for long periods are a serious occupational health and safety problem. Sitting jobs require less muscular effort, but that does not exempt people from injury risks usually associated with more physically demanding tasks. Limited mobility contributes to injuries in the parts of the body responsible for movement: the muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments. Another factor is the steady, localized tension in certain regions of the body. The neck and lower back are the regions usually most affected.

Common Mistakes in Sitting

Any position we hold for any length of time will eventually turn to pain because the body is not primed to do that.

1.    Your upper body slouches forward: You're slouching whether you know it or not. When you slouch while sitting, your head is pulled down and forward by gravity. Your spine will start to curve and your body will experience pain. Your spine has three natural curves it aims to maintain. Imagine how tying an 11lb weight, the average weight of a human skull and brain, to your neck would distort your spine. That's exactly what's happening when your head slouches forward when sitting. Thinking of aligning your spine straight up and down, with the force of gravity, to prevent aching when sitting. If you keep your back straight and you think of gravity as a force that pulls in one direction, downward, like a vertical rod, you can align yourself to this vertical and spare your body from pain.

2.    Looking up or down at your monitor: When you look up at a monitor that is too high, the neck is forced to extend. This compresses the joints in the neck and causes fatigue in the muscles, which could lead to inflammation, pain, and headaches. Equally, you can also strain your neck by looking down at your monitor or by using a laptop screen for long periods. This poor position also promotes a slouched posture for the rest of the spine, contributing to upper and lower back issues.

3.    Slouching in your chair: Slouching in your chair could mean that your chair is too high or too low. If the chair is too high so that your legs hang, this can limit circulation to the legs and cause fatigue and contribute to varicose veins. If the chair is too low, the lower back ends up in a forward flexed position, contributing to disc issues and degeneration.

4.    Keep your legs fixed in one position: Often people stay in the same fixed position for hours on end. Even a “good ergonomic setup” will be detrimental if you stay there all day long.

5.    Reaching too far for the mouse and keyboard: Reaching repetitively throughout the day to a mouse that is farther away than need be contributes to trigger points and muscle tension and fatigue in the neck, upper back, shoulders, and arms. Keyboards that are too small (laptop keyboard) or at the incorrect height can contribute to repetitive strains such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis/golfer’s elbow, and forearm strain.

Five minutes of a moderate to vigorous activity, such as walking for every 40 to 50 minutes of sitting, can help protect an employee. These breaks are also beneficial because they give the heart, lungs, and muscles some exercise. Where practical, jobs should incorporate "activity breaks" such as work-related tasks away from the desk or simple exercises that employees can carry out on the worksite. When people sit for too long, their muscles and joints become stiff and tight. Stretching helps loosen up the joints and lengthen the muscles to help the body work more efficiently. Stretching the muscles and joints of the body also helps ward off potential injuries to the back. If the back muscles and spine are better able to support the body and work while turning or twisting, pulled muscles or slipped discs in the back are less likely. Sitting in a chair for eight hours per day does not strengthen any muscles. Research has shown that back muscles are weakened from prolonged sitting.  When back muscles are weak, they cannot support the spine as they should. 

Products that May Help prolong sitting and associate injuries

1.    Standing Desk: Standing, even for short periods throughout the day, has been proven to help alleviate or prevent sitting-caused back pain. By standing at your desk, you'll burn extra calories, and the variability offered by a sit-to-stand desk will benefit you in more ways than you might think. There are commercial products that easily allow you to change the level of your work so that you can vary your position as often as your body demands.

2.    Ergonomic Chair: For most of us, sitting is just part of our daily lives and jobs. Even for those with the benefit of a standing desk, it's still important to make sure that you have a quality chair for the considerable time you still spend sitting. Ergonomic focused chairs offer lower back or lumbar support which is key in making your sitting time much less painful.

3.    Keyboard Tray: A keyboard tray is an excellent ergonomic accessory that allows you to adjust your keyboard height and angle independently from your desktop or monitors. This can aid in achieving good posture and can help minimize pain both sitting or standing.

4.    Monitor Arms: Monitor's arms allow you to position your monitors exactly where you need them. Monitor's arms are often bought to improve desktop aesthetics or organization, but they are great for those suffering from back and neck pain. They allow you to bring your monitors closer and position them at an ideal angle and height. This can reduce your tendency to lean forward or look downward at your screen.

5.    Social habit: Getting up for 5 minutes out of every hour, even just to walk around or do a bit of light stretching or exercise to reverse many of the negative effects of prolonged sitting. Interestingly, 5 min performed each hour has a better effect than 30 min of exercise at the end of the day because the damage of prolonged sitting is already done. Even a sustained period of intensive exercise doesn’t make up for hours of uninterrupted sitting. Set up a timer: To make sure you get out of the chair for at least a few minutes every hour.

6.    Keep in motion: adjusting your position every 15-30 minutes prevents changes to your lumbar discs. So go ahead and get a fresh coffee, gossip with a colleague, gaze out the window, do anything other than sitting a few times an hour, and you won't feel so much pain later on.

7.    Use an Inversion Table: Inversion therapy is a technique where you are suspended upside down to stretch the spine and relieve back pain. The theory is that by shifting the body’s gravity, the pressure eases off the back while also providing traction for the spine. Activities such as sitting, running, and bending can put pressure on these discs. The pressure increases the risk for back pain, a collapsed vertebra, and other complications. According to the Mayo Clinic, most well-designed studies found inversion therapy ineffective. But some people report this form of stretching as a beneficial complementary treatment to back pain.

8.    Strap system: Strap system to pull the shoulder back or straighten the spine can likewise be helpful, but likewise do no solve the problem for many or for very long.

Finally, no matter how comfortable you are at your desk, prolonged, static posture is not good for your back. Try to remember to stand, stretch, and walk at least a minute or two every half hour. Moving about and stretching regularly throughout the day will help keep your joints, ligaments, muscles, and tendons loose, which in turn will help you feel more comfortable, more relaxed, and more productive.