Effects of Sitting Combatted by Manchester Exercise and Not Sitting!
“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You’ve heard it. Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries sees the effects of sitting in our Manchester chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain and related issues. Let’s consider sitting and being sedentary workers and what our options might be.
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 draw attention to the issue that sitting a lot is not healthy for anyone. 25% of adults Manchester chiropractic patients and adults included sit more than 8 hours daily. Older adults are said to sit for even more time. (2) Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries realizes 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 report to us that the activity level of low back pain suffers is 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 boost muscle strength or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting presented a risk for all-cause mortality separate from 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) Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries 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” suggestion as an “inconvenient truth”: a few weekly visits to the gym isn’t able to 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, especially 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 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 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 had 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, particularly for those with chronic lumbago in whom these exercises reduced pain. (9) Exercise works! It’s not everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a part of the solution.
CONTACT Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries
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 bothers us sitting folks.
Schedule you Manchester chiropractic appointment with Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue defines you and back pain complicates it, Manchester chiropractic care is for you…besides striving to not sit that much and exercising a bit more!
