Effects of Sitting Combatted by Oxford Exercise and Not Sitting!
“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You’ve heard it. Satterwhite Chiropractic sees the effects of sitting in our Oxford chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain and associated issues. Let’s look at 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 allude to 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 Oxford chiropractic patients and adults included sit more than 8 hours a day. Older adults are said to sit for even more time. (2) Satterwhite Chiropractic realizes 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 didn’t do any activity to enhance muscle strength or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting posed a risk for all-cause mortality separate from physical activity even if it is of moderate to vigorous effort. The best suggestion is to reduce the quantity of sitting not just increase physical activity levels. (4) Satterwhite Chiropractic encourages both, too!
WHAT CAN WE DO? EXERCISE (AND A BONUS: RESPIRATION IMPROVEMENT)
One author opined the challenge of the “exercise to buffer sitting’s effect” implication as an “inconvenient truth”: a few weekly trips to the fitness center isn’t able to really erase a lifetime of sitting. He also contended that fixing the sitting issue by standing has its own problems (beyond its being uncomfortable!) like foot pain and varicose veins. (5) So what then, particularly for low back pain sufferers? Dynamic strengthening exercises – those that focus on core and global stabilization as well as endurance in stabilizing musculature – showed 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 was more helpful and lasted for 12 weeks. (7) A bonus 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 a big deal! 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 helps! It isn’t everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a part of the solution.
CONTACT Satterwhite 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 Oxford chiropractic appointment with Satterwhite Chiropractic today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue defines you and back pain complicates it, Oxford chiropractic care is for you…together with striving to not sit that much and exercising a little more!
