Effects of Sitting Combatted by Fort Wayne Exercise and Not Sitting!
“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You’ve heard this claim. Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc sees the effects of sitting in our Fort Wayne chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain and associated issues. Let us look at 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 cite this claim! (1) Glaring or not, it does highlight the issue that sitting a lot is not healthy for anyone. 25% of adults including Fort Wayne chiropractic patients and adults sit more than 8 hours a day. Older adults supposedly sit for even more time. (2) Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc 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 didn’t do any activity to boost muscle strength or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting presented a risk for all-cause mortality independent of physical activity even if it is of moderate to vigorous effort. The best suggestion is to decrease the quantity of sitting not just boost physical activity levels. (4) Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc 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” implication as an “inconvenient truth”: a few weekly visits to the fitness center isn’t able to 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 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 plus endurance in stabilizing musculature – displayed 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 reduced low back pain and functional disability in sedentary workers. A lumbar stabilization exercise program was more helpful and persisted 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 demonstrated that forced breathing exercise therapy effectively improved trunk stability and daily living activities in chronic low back pain patients, particularly for those with chronic lumbago in whom these exercises eased pain. (9) Exercise helps! It is not everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a piece of the puzzle.
CONTACT Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc
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 Fort Wayne chiropractic appointment with Cox Chiropractic Medicine Inc today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue defines you and back pain complicates it, Fort Wayne chiropractic care is for you…besides striving to not sit that much and exercising a little more!
