Prolonged sitting is not good for your back – or your health.

A new study (2015) in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that “Prolonged sedentary time was independently associated with deleterious health outcomes regardless of physical activity.”

‘Regardless of physical activity’ means that even if you are exercising one-hour a day at the gym, if you sit at work for 8 hours a day it is bad for your health at multiple levels.

I often talk with my chiropractic patients at our chiropractic office in Caledonia about the pitfalls of sedentary behaviours and their impacts on the spine. One of my favourite talking points for this is the title of the book – “Sitting Kills Moving Heals”.

Another favourite teaching point of mine for our patients is to mention that “Sitting is the new smoking. Everyone is doing it, it is socially acceptable, but it is bad for us”.

I try to get the patient to ask or think “Why is sitting bad for my health?”

Sitting is bad for your health for many reasons. Here are some of my favourites:

• There is very little effort required to sit which creates a lazy body, spine, heart, lungs, and muscles
• There are very poor sitting postures that are very common (look around your office for some great examples)
• The body thrives on movement and prolonged sedentary postures have the body sit still for long periods of time
• The joints in the spine and body need movement to feed them with fresh nutrients, oxygen, and fluid

What if I have to sit for work? What can I do to improve my health if I have to sit for work?
Move more.  A chiropractor will always encourage more movement in your life habits, especially if you have a job that requires sitting.

“Movement is life and the absence of movement is..”

Movement is the key to preventing your body from slowly deteriorating because of a sedentary job. By shifting positions in your chair, standing up regularly, and stopping your bad sitting postures that you regularly get stuck in you can decrease the negative affects of being sedentary on your health.

“Motion is lotion”

I have lots of ideas that I pass on to my chiropractic patients to encourage them to survive their sitting jobs.  What do you think would help improve your wellness? If you can’t think of any…We can help.