Effects of Sitting Combatted by Baton Rouge Exercise and Not Sitting!
“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You’ve heard this claim. Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers sees the effects of sitting in our Baton Rouge 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 stated that 300 news articles cite this claim! (1) Glaring or not, it does highlight the concern that sitting a lot isn’t healthy for anyone. 25% of adults Baton Rouge chiropractic patients and adults included sit more than 8 hours daily. Older adults are said to sit for even more time. (2) Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers 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% lead sedentary lives, 48.5% had underactive lifestyles, and 68.3% of them didn’t do any activity to enhance muscle strength or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting created 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 sitting time not just boost physical activity levels. (4) Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers urges 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 can’t really wipe away 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, especially for low back pain sufferers? Dynamic strengthening exercises – those that concentrate 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 precisely, 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 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 improved 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 isn’t everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a part of the solution.
CONTACT Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab 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 Baton Rouge chiropractic appointment with Medical Spine and Sports Injury and Rehab Centers today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue describes you and back pain complicates it, Baton Rouge chiropractic care is for you…in addition to striving to not sit so much and exercising a bit more!
