Effects of Sitting Combatted by Groton Exercise and Not Sitting!
“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You have surely heard it. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office sees the effects of sitting in our Groton chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain and related issues. Let’s discuss 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 Groton chiropractic patients and adults included sit more than 8 hours daily. Older adults are said to sit even more. (2) Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office 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 low back pain sufferers’ activity levels are 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 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 reduce the quantity of sitting not just boost physical activity levels. (4) Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office urges both, too!
WHAT CAN WE DO? EXERCISE (AND A BONUS: RESPIRATION IMPROVEMENT)
One author asserted the conundrum of the “exercise to buffer sitting’s effect” suggestion as an “inconvenient truth”: a few weekly trips to the fitness center isn’t able to really wipe away a lifetime of sitting. He also contended that fixing the sitting issue by standing has its own problems (beyond its being uncomfortable!) like varicose veins and foot pain. (5) So what then, especially for low back pain sufferers? Dynamic strengthening exercises – those that concentrate on core and global stabilization plus endurance in stabilizing musculature – showed better improvement in pain relief and better function particularly 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) An advantage 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 demonstrated that forced breathing exercise therapy effectively improved trunk stability and daily living activities in chronic low back pain patients, especially for those with chronic lumbago in whom these exercises reduced pain. (9) Exercise works! It isn’t everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a part of the solution.
CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
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 bothers us sitting folks.
Schedule you Groton chiropractic appointment with Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue describes you and back pain makes matters worse, Groton chiropractic care is for you…in addition to striving to not sit so much and exercising a bit more!
