Effects of Sitting Combatted by Vancouver Exercise and Not Sitting!
“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You’ve heard it. Vancouver Disc Centers sees the effects of sitting in our Vancouver chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain and related 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 is not healthy for anyone. 25% of adults Vancouver chiropractic patients and adults included sit more than 8 hours daily. Older adults supposedly sit even more. (2) Vancouver Disc Centers knows 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 low back pain sufferers’ activity levels are 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 increase 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 increase physical activity levels. (4) Vancouver Disc Centers 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 visits to the fitness center can’t really erase 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, 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 especially in the lumbar multifidus and transversus abdominus which are two muscles that low back pain bothers. (6) More specifically, a 20-week lumbar stabilization exercise and muscle strengthening exercise program decreased low back pain and functional disability in sedentary workers. A lumbar stabilization exercise program proved more effective and persisted 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 experienced segmental instability. (8) Respiration is a big deal! Another study demonstrated 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 decreased pain. (9) Exercise works! It is not everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a part of the solution.
CONTACT Vancouver Disc Centers
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 Vancouver chiropractic appointment with Vancouver Disc Centers today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue describes you and back pain complicates it, Vancouver chiropractic care is for you…in addition to trying not to sit that much and exercising a bit more!
