SITTING TOO MUCH? HOW TO FIX SITTING-RELATED ACHES AND PAINS

written by: Nem
​Prolonged sitting and inactivity has been linked to many health concerns. This includes heart disease, type II diabetes, musculoskeletal issues, loss of muscle mass, fat gain and even the risk of premature death goes up according to certain studies. ​Considering the current social distancing restrictions due to COVID-19, this is especially relevant as staying home to stay safe, can mean moving less.

One of the first signs of negative effects of prolonged sitting includes musculoskeletal complaints like:

• stiff and achy neck
• stiff and achy shoulders
• stiff and achy low back
• tight chest muscles
• tight hip flexors (muscles on the front side of your hip)
• weak glutes

​This is usually the result of spending too much time in a slouched position where the lower back loses its natural curvature, upper back rounds and head protrudes forward.

Most jobs today require sitting, so it's understandable that these issues are so prominent in our society.  Luckily with a few changes to your daily routine, you can largely avoid the negative effects of sitting and set up yourself for success. 

One of the proposed solutions is to constantly maintain this ideal or perfect posture.

​​DOES PERFECT POSTURE EXIST?

Almost certainly at some point in your life, you've been told things like "stand up straight", "no slouching" and "don't hunch". This was inevitably followed with a "fix" - straight back, shoulders back, excessive lumbar curvature and tightened core.

If you look into "proper posture", you'll find many articles suggesting that there is this perfect posture we should all aim to be in, all the time. 

Whenever we are sitting or standing, we should all strive to be in this good posture and any kind of deviation from this ideal position is bad for us.

However is this really the case?

After years of research and empirical data, it turns out that there is no such thing as perfect posture. Any posture can be good or bad depending on the position you are in, the time you spent in that position and your unique physiology and circumstances (e.g. previous injury, fitness levels, etc.). 

And if you ever tried to maintain this "perfect posture" for a significant amount of time, you might've noticed similar feelings of discomfort the "bad posture" had caused. In fact, many of the aches and pains might go away if people are simply allowed to relax and slouch. We most often see this with our low back pain clients.

Our bodies are designed to bend, extend, twist, and move in all sorts of directions. Spending a significant amount of time in any particular position is not good for us and it will inevitably cause issues if given enough time. 

This is because maintaining a particular posture or joint angle, requires constant action from specific muscles, ligaments and tendons to fight off gravity.

If we don't switch posture or joint angle often, then these particular tissues don't get any rest. This then causes muscle fatigue, ligament distension (ligaments get overstretched), joint stiffness from a lack of movement and the whole area not getting enough nutrition and oxygen due to blood vessel constricting effect of muscle contraction (when muscles contract they constrict blood vessels which may reduce or completely eliminate blood flow). 

So one the best ways to prevent sitting-related issues is activity and frequent change of positions, but there's more.  

​TIPS TO PREVENT SITTING-RELATED ISSUES

Now that we know that there is no such thing as perfect posture and the main reason why we get aches and pains from sitting too much, it's time to talk about things we can do day-to-day in order to prevent these issues:

1. Change positions frequently. Whenever you can, try to switch up positions. Simply is that. You can set up a reminder on your phone to notify you to move every 20-60 minutes. Stand up, walk around, lift your knees, move arms, etc. Do anything that will get you moving more. So if you are slouching a lot, try to keep upright position more, but you don't need to go to the opposite extreme and be upright all the time. And if you are upright all the time and still feel muscle tension and stiffness, try to relax and slouch more.​

2. Setup your workspace properly (ergonomic design). Even though there is no such thing as a perfect posture, if you are going to spend lots of time in one particular position, you want to make sure you are spending time in a position that causes the least amount of problems. Refer to a picture below to get an idea of a proper setup.

​3. Get a standing desk. Having an adjustable standing desk will allow you to switch between a seated and standing position without interrupting your workflow. Try to switch up from sitting to standing position and vice versa every 30-60 minutes.
 
4. ​Incorporate stretching. Prolonged sitting causes the body to stiffen up. Take joints through their full range of motion and focus on muscles that stiffen up the most from prolonged sitting like hip flexors, chest, and low back. Here's an example stretching routine using just an office chair:
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5. Incorporate activation exercises. Incorporating some sort of light strengthening exercises will allow you to keep adequate muscle tone and work on muscles that usually suffer the most from prolonged sitting like glutes and upper back.
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​6. ​Fix muscle imbalances. Individuals with certain body types and characteristics are more prone to sitting-related issues. This includes individuals who have excessive low back curvature, excessive upper back rounding, overactive neck flexors, weak hip muscles, poor core strength, just to name a few. Getting a proper assessment by a trained professional, incorporating the right type of correctives and staying consistent is key here. 

​HOW CAN WE HELP?

In case you have any questions for us, let us know below or get in touch with us directly at [email protected] 

Are you looking for more individualized help? We provide online fitness and live online personal training and kinesiology sessions. We can assess your posture, imbalances, advise you on your workspace design, develop an individualized plan and guide you through the whole process. 

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