“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You’ve
heard this claim. Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation sees the effects of sitting in our
Tonawanda chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain
and related issues. Let’s explore
sitting and being sedentary workers and what our options might be.
SITTING COMPARISON TO SMOKING
Is the sitting and smoking a little harsh?
Maybe. One medical report uncovered that 300 news articles allude
to this claim! (1) Glaring or not, it does highlight
the concern that
sitting a lot is not healthy for anyone. 25% of adults including Tonawanda
chiropractic patients and adults sit more than 8 hours a day.
Older adults supposedly sit even more.
(2) Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation 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 document
that low back pain
sufferers’ activity levels are low. Of 300 patients, 32.5% live sedentary
lives, 48.5% had underactive lifestyles, and 68.3% of them did
not do any activity to enhance muscle strength
or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting posed 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 sitting time
not just increase physical activity levels. (4) Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation urges
both, too!
WHAT CAN WE DO? EXERCISE (AND A BONUS: RESPIRATION
IMPROVEMENT)
One author opined the conundrum
of the “exercise to buffer sitting’s effect” suggestion as an
“inconvenient truth”: a few weekly visits to the fitness center
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 foot pain and varicose veins. (5) So what then, especially
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 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 helpful and lasted
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 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 isn’t
everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a part of the solution.
CONTACT Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation
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 Tonawanda chiropractic appointment
with Chiropractic Spine Sports And Rehabilitation today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue describes
you and back pain complicates it, Tonawanda
chiropractic care is for you…besides trying not to sit so much and exercising a bit
more!