Did you know that by natural design, the human body is optimized for STANDING and WALKING, not sitting and lying down?
The evidence is longer and stronger legs for standing and walking compared to the arms. Your femur, tibia and fibula (leg bones) are longer and thicker than their counterparts; respectively the humerus, ulna and radius bones of the arm. Millions of years of evolution made our species homo sapiens develop this bi-pedal frame in order to survive and thrive. No other animal as far as we know has a frame like ours.
But there’s a problem: the bipedal design of man evolved during a time when there were no desks, computers and automobiles whose operation is better suited for sitting. Back then, there was only rough terrain to walk for miles in order to seek shelter and food. There was fast prey to subdue by foot in order to not starve.
Fast forward to today: just about all occupations these days involve using a laptop. White collar jobs, and increasingly blue collar jobs require sitting at a desk. Sitting is required for operating airplanes, trucks, and cars. To add to the problem, food is plentiful; overall less nutritious and higher in calories — no need to walk that much (expend calories) to get it while it packs on the pounds. Humans are much heavier than they were millions of years ago, on average, and it’s not due to muscle. This makes standing less tolerable, and makes sitting feel better on our feet.
So the combination of frequent sitting and weight gain, which places more pressure on your joints, is a harmful combination that leads to pain and injury, affecting tens of millions of people. Osteoarthritis is the gradual degeneration of the joints, particularly the weight-bearing joints (hips, knees, feet, lumbar spine) and it is hastened with obesity and sedentary living.
Here are the detrimental things that happen in your body when you sit for prolonged periods throughout the day:
- The pressure to your lumbar discs increases. Sitting removes back support from your legs, pelvis and abdominal muscles, which contract less when you sit.
- Your postural muscles turn off somewhat, and as a result you burn less calories. Some studies connect this to a rise in bad cholesterol levels in the blood.
- When you bend your neck to look at a monitor screen while sitting, it creates forward head posture. This strains the neck and upper shoulder muscles, and compresses the neck vertebrae; hastening osteoarthritis in the cervical spine. It can even cause tension headaches.
Sitting is an inescapable part of life. The key is to compensate for it by standing and walking when you can. Neutralize its effects. There are many ways to do this while living a modern lifestyle: walk to work, walk during lunch breaks, take the stairs instead of escalator, and do 15-minute workouts right in your office or work area, to name a few.
Drs. Brent and Tiffany Caplan, integrative medicine practitioners based in Ventura, California recommend the following simple stretches to do to counteract sitting:
Let’s talk about creep. No, I am not talking about a person unwelcomely staring at you all night from across the bar. I am talking about a constant load of stress applied to soft tissues (muscles, ligaments, fascia, discs) over an extended period of time resulting in a progressive deformation of those soft tissues. This can lead to muscles or ligaments changing their functional resting length and adaptively shorten or lengthen. These imbalances will lead to degeneration of your spine and will also set you up for future injuries. Creep to your intervertebral discs, the cushion between each spinal segment, may cause them to deform eventually leading to a herniated disc.
A common position that we are constantly in, as working professionals or students, is sitting. The sitting position, especially if in a poor slouched posture, puts an overload of strain in your neck, mid back, and lower back. It may also affect how well you are breathing. Poor respiration will lead to a decrease in oxygen supply to your body and brain!
So now that we know about creep and sitting how do we prevent it? The answer is simple. You should not sit for more than 20 minutes without taking a micro-break. These include Brügger’s relief position and the standing overhead arm reach. No pain should be felt during these movements. These movements are beneficial if you have any back or neck pain or want to support your spine and prevent any degeneration or future injury.
Brügger’s relief position:
- Do while standing or sitting on the edge of your seat.
- Relax arms at side and turn palms outward, spread fingers, bring shoulders down and back, tuck your chin (attempting to make a double chin, not looking down but straight ahead).
- Now exhale repeatedly as if trying to make a candle flame flicker but not go out. Be aware to make sure you are stomach breathing and not chest breathing. (To test this put one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach. You should feel your stomach rising up and down as your inhale and exhale but your chest should remain still).
Do this for 10 seconds every 20 minutes.
Standing overhead arm reach:
Stand up and gently raise both arms above your head with palms facing forward and elbows slightly bent.
- Take a deep breath in through your nose and hold the breath while reaching up as high as you comfortably can (a stretch should be felt in your lower back).
- Hold for a couple seconds then release the breath through your mouth and go back to the starting position.
Do 10 repetitions every 20 minutes.
Now you’re done and your micro-break only lasted 30 seconds, totaling a mere 1.5 minutes per hour, to maintain your health and prevent spinal injuries.
Dr. Brent Caplan & Dr. Tiffany Caplan
Central Coast Center for Integrative Health
1730 S Victoria Avenue, Ste 230
Ventura CA 93003
