Effects of Sitting Combatted by Juneau Exercise and Not Sitting!
“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You’ve heard this claim. Aurora Chiropractic Center sees the effects of sitting in our Juneau chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain and related 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 cite this claim! (1) Glaring or not, it does call attention to the concern that sitting a lot isn’t healthy for anyone. 25% of adults including Juneau chiropractic patients and adults sit more than 8 hours daily. Older adults are said to sit for even more time. (2) Aurora Chiropractic Center knows we all sit. We’re not shaming you! We are 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% had underactive lifestyles, and 68.3% of them did not do any activity to increase muscle strength or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting posed a risk for all-cause mortality unrelated to physical activity even if it is of moderate to vigorous effort. The best suggestion is to decrease the quantity of sitting not just increase physical activity levels. (4) Aurora Chiropractic Center 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” implication as an “inconvenient truth”: a few weekly visits to the gym isn’t able to really erase a lifetime of sitting. He also contended 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, particularly for low back pain sufferers? Dynamic strengthening exercises – those that concentrate on core and global stabilization as well as endurance in stabilizing musculature – displayed better improvement in pain relief and better function particularly in the lumbar multifidus and transversus abdominus which are two muscles that low back pain bothers. (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 proved more helpful and lasted for 12 weeks. (7) A bonus 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 experienced segmental instability. (8) Respiration is a big deal! 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 is not everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a piece of the puzzle.
CONTACT Aurora Chiropractic Center
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 Juneau chiropractic appointment with Aurora Chiropractic Center today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue describes you and back pain complicates it, Juneau chiropractic care is for you…together with striving to not sit so much and exercising a little more!
