Effects of Sitting Combatted by Fernandina Beach Exercise and Not Sitting!
“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You’ve heard it. Amelia Chiropractic Clinic sees the effects of sitting in our Fernandina Beach chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain and associated issues. Let us explore sitting and being sedentary workers and what we can do about it.
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) Glaring or not, it does highlight the concern that sitting a lot is not healthy for anyone. 25% of adults including Fernandina Beach chiropractic patients and adults sit more than 8 hours a day. Older adults supposedly sit for even more time. (2) Amelia Chiropractic Clinic knows we all sit. We’re not shaming you! We’re with you!
THE STATE OF NSCLBP in SEDENTARY WORKERS
Sitting is what we do. Researchers tell us that the activity level of low back pain suffers is low. Of 300 patients, 32.5% lead sedentary lives, 48.5% live underactive lifestyles, and 68.3% of them did not do any activity to increase muscle strength or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting created a risk for all-cause mortality unrelated to physical activity even if it is of moderate to vigorous effort. The best suggestion is to reduce the quantity of sitting not just boost physical activity levels. (4) Amelia Chiropractic Clinic supports 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 can’t 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 focus on core and global stabilization plus endurance in stabilizing musculature – showed 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 proved more effective and persisted 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 had segmental instability. (8) Respiration is a big deal! Another study showed 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 part of the solution.
CONTACT Amelia Chiropractic Clinic
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 Fernandina Beach chiropractic appointment with Amelia Chiropractic Clinic today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue defines you and back pain complicates it, Fernandina Beach chiropractic care is for you…besides trying not to sit that much and exercising a bit more!
