“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You have surely
heard it. Manahawkin Chiropractic Center sees the effects of sitting in our
Manahawkin chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain
and associated issues. Let’s 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 uncovered that 300 news articles allude
to this claim! (1) Glaring or not, it does draw attention to the issue that
sitting a lot is not healthy for anyone. 25% of adults Manahawkin
chiropractic patients and adults included sit more than 8 hours daily.
Older adults supposedly sit for even more time.
(2) Manahawkin Chiropractic 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 document
that the activity level of low back pain suffers is low. Of 300 patients, 32.5% lead sedentary
lives, 48.5% live underactive lifestyles, and 68.3% of them did
not do any activity to enhance muscle strength
or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting posed a risk for
all-cause mortality separate from physical
activity even if it’s of moderate to vigorous effort. The best
suggestion is to decrease sitting time
not just boost physical activity levels. (4) Manahawkin Chiropractic Center supports
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 trips to the fitness center
isn’t able to really erase a lifetime of sitting. He
also shared 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 concentrate
on core and global stabilization as well as endurance in stabilizing
musculature – displayed better improvement in pain relief and better
function particularly in the lumbar multifidus and transversus
abdominus which are two muscles that low back pain affects.
(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 lasted
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 experienced
segmental instability. (8) Respiration is important! Another study
demonstrated that forced breathing exercise therapy effectively enhanced
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 isn’t
everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a piece
of the puzzle.
CONTACT Manahawkin Chiropractic 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 bothers us sitting folks.
Schedule you Manahawkin chiropractic appointment
with Manahawkin Chiropractic Center today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue describes
you and back pain makes matters worse, Manahawkin
chiropractic care is for you…in addition to trying not to sit so much and exercising a bit
more!