Effects of Sitting Combatted by Richmond Exercise and Not Sitting!
“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You have surely heard this claim. Johnson Chiropractic sees the effects of sitting in our Richmond chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain and associated issues. Let us discuss sitting and being sedentary workers and what we can do about it.
SITTING COMPARISON TO SMOKING
Is the sitting and smoking a little glaring? Maybe. One medical report stated that 300 news articles mention this claim! (1) Glaring or not, it does draw attention to the concern that sitting a lot is not healthy for anyone. 25% of adults Richmond chiropractic patients and adults included sit more than 8 hours daily. Older adults supposedly sit even more. (2) Johnson Chiropractic realizes we all sit. We are not shaming you! We are 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% live sedentary lives, 48.5% had underactive lifestyles, and 68.3% of them did not do any activity to enhance 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 decrease the quantity of sitting not just boost physical activity levels. (4) Johnson Chiropractic encourages 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 visits to the fitness center can’t really wipe away a lifetime of sitting. He also shared 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, especially for low back pain sufferers? Dynamic strengthening exercises – those that focus 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 reduced low back pain and functional disability in sedentary workers. A lumbar stabilization exercise program was more helpful and lasted for 12 weeks. (7) An advantage to lumbar segmental stabilization exercise is that it activated the deep muscles and enhanced respiratory function and pressure in chronic low back pain patient who had segmental instability. (8) Respiration is important! Another study showed that forced breathing exercise therapy effectively enhanced 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 Johnson Chiropractic
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 Richmond chiropractic appointment with Johnson Chiropractic today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue describes you and back pain makes matters worse, Richmond chiropractic care is for you…besides striving to not sit that much and exercising a little more!
