“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You’ve
heard this claim. Spine & Sports Rehab Center sees the effects of sitting in our
Baton Rouge chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain
and related issues. Let us 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 cite this claim! (1) Glaring or not, it does draw attention to the concern that
sitting a lot isn’t healthy for anyone. 25% of adults including Baton Rouge
chiropractic patients and adults sit more than 8 hours a day.
Older adults supposedly sit even more.
(2) Spine & Sports Rehab Center realizes we all sit. We are not
shaming you! We’re with you!
THE STATE OF NSCLBP in SEDENTARY WORKERS
Sitting is what we do. Researchers tell us
that low back pain
sufferers’ activity levels are low. Of 300 patients, 32.5% live 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 posed a risk for
all-cause mortality unrelated to physical
activity even if it is of moderate to vigorous effort. The best
suggestion is to reduce sitting time
not just increase physical activity levels. (4) Spine & Sports Rehab Center supports
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” implication as an
“inconvenient truth”: a few weekly visits to the gym
can’t 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 varicose
veins and foot pain. (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 – displayed better improvement in pain relief and better
function especially in the lumbar multifidus and transversus
abdominus which are 2 muscles that low back pain bothers.
(6) More specifically, 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 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 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 decreased
pain. (9) Exercise works! It is not
everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a part of the solution.
CONTACT Spine & Sports Rehab Center
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 Spine & Sports Rehab Center today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue describes
you and back pain complicates it, Baton Rouge
chiropractic care is for you…together with trying not to sit that much and exercising a little
more!