We are starting to realise that sitting for long periods is bad for you. It’s like smoking or over eating neither is good in the long run.
We know that sitting can increase your risks of Heart disease, Obesity, Diabetics and Cancer to name but a few.
But have you thought about the impact it’s having on your muscles and posture? Sitting could be the cause of your bad back!
If you go to the gym or exercise regularly that is great but it’s not enough. It is the sitting during the day that is causing the problems.
Table of Contents
How long do you sit?
How does your day look, something like this?
Get up and SIT and have breakfast
Get in the car and SIT driving to work
Get to your desk and SIT until lunchtime
Lunchtime SIT at your desk eating your lunch
SIT at your desk all afternoon
Get back in the car SIT and drive home
Have tea – SIT at the table
SIT on the sofa and watch TV
Go to bed
OK I have missed out the exercise bit but that will only probably be an hour (and do you sit on an bike?)
I have just come across this great book by Dr James Levine – “GET UP – Why your chair is killing you and what you can do about it”
I have only read the first chapter at writing and I am already hooked.
On average he states we tend to
SIT for 13 hours
Sleep for 8 hours
Move for 3 hours!
But the most shocking statement in the first chapter is “for every hour we SIT 2 hours of our life slips away!”
Shocking when we could easily change this
Do you still need more evidence? Maybe this will relate with you better?
Which muscles are effected?
Sitting all day mainly effects your glutes, hip flexors, leg muscles, shoulders as well as effecting our posture.
The glutes are our main powerhouse, helping us walk and move our legs as well as stabilising the pelvis. When these become weak or tight they can cause tight hamstrings and lower back problems, sometimes causing sciatica
The hip flexors main role is to flex our hips. They are attached to the spine and have an important role in stabilising the spine and pelvis. With prolonged sitting these tend to shorten causing problems in the pelvis potential causing problems in the back!
The Spine, sitting for long periods can put extra pressure on your spinal muscles creating poor posture which in turn can put strain on your spinal discs.
In the long run it’s not great and we should be moving more in our day. When we do are daily exercise we should be targeting and strengthening these areas.
During the day we need to move more too. It’s recommended you shouldn’t sit more than 50 minutes in any hour, but moving every 30 minutes would be beneficial. My Blog ” How long should you sit for in your day” gives some quick wins on how to move more.
Top Tips to moving in your day
- Walking around and swinging your arms is a start
- Standing up and circling your arms.
- Rolling your shoulders to relieve tension.
- Squats to wake up your glutes
- Opening up the chest, especially if you have been hunched over your desk
These are a few that you could just stand up from your desk and do. It needn’t take long it just needs to be done throughout the day.
Need more ideas?
Come and join me on my Facebook page every Thursday at
12.30 pm
for a quick stretch away from your desk.
You don’t need to change or have any specialist equipment
you just need to stand up!
You can join HERE – don’t forget to like the page and turn on the notifications too so you don’t miss out