Effects of Sitting Combatted by Nashua Exercise and Not Sitting!

“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You’ve heard it. Moriarty Chiropractic sees the effects of sitting in our Nashua chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain and related issues. Let us discuss 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 allude to this claim! (1) Harsh or not, it does draw attention to the issue that sitting a lot is not healthy for anyone. 25% of adults Nashua chiropractic patients and adults included sit more than 8 hours daily. Older adults supposedly sit even more. (2) Moriarty Chiropractic realizes we all sit. We are not shaming you! We are 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 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 the quantity of sitting not just increase physical activity levels. (4) Moriarty Chiropractic encourages 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” suggestion as an “inconvenient truth”: a few weekly visits to the gym isn’t able to really wipe away a lifetime of sitting. He also contended that fixing the sitting issue by standing has its own problems (beyond its being uncomfortable!) like foot pain and varicose veins. (5) So what then, particularly for low back pain sufferers? Dynamic strengthening exercises – those that concentrate 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 two 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 effective and lasted 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 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 piece of the puzzle.

CONTACT Moriarty Chiropractic

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 Nashua chiropractic appointment with Moriarty Chiropractic today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue defines you and back pain complicates it, Nashua chiropractic care is for you…together with striving to not sit so much and exercising a little more!