Sitting Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

It’s a gorgeous day outside, but my kids are at a hockey tournament so instead of being out and about, I’m using the opportunity to sit at my computer. The upside is that I’ll get to bed earlier tonight (sleep = good!). The downside is that I spend most of my waking, non-mom hours at computers (sitting = bad!).

If you work a desk job like I do, you’re probably in the same boat. Researchers are starting to notice that it doesn’t really matter if a person leaves her desk and heads straight to the gym every night — you can be totally fit, but if your day is spent on your butt, you will still have a higher risk of heart disease and other health problems. For details, check out this Men’s Health article.

Realistically, most of us leave our desks and head straight to the car to spend a couple of hours chauffeuring kids to events and practices after school. More sitting.

Ideally, researchers say

we should spend more time standing and moving. But while I’m waiting for “ideal” to become part of my daily schedule, I turned to two experts — a yoga instructor and a massage therapist — for strategies on stretching and strengthening my muscles.

“Sitting for long periods causes us to collapse our spine by allowing the chair to support us instead of our natural internal structure,” said certified yoga instructor Kim Kaplan via e-mail. “We lose integrity of our natural upright posture as we let gravity — and the chair — take over. During a period of sitting we lose connection to our core muscles, which causes compression to the lower back, caving in of the chest, and rounding of the shoulders, all of which can cause many physical problems like sciatica, sacral and lower back pain, as well as neck and shoulder pain.”

I can attest to this. A recent massage left my neck sore for two days because the therapist was trying to loosen its muscles up a little.

Gail Myers, lead therapist at theMassage Envy Spa-Manchester, said via e-mail, “One of the most important things if you’re sitting at a desk all day is to get up and stretch or move around every 30 minutes, if possible.

“A lot of my clients are hunched over computers all day,” Myers continued. “I tell them to go to the doorway and stretch — which is to place your hands on either side of the doorframe at shoulder height and slowly lean your body into the doorway. That stretches the pecs in the front so your back isn’t taking on all the stress of your body; it also releases your shoulders and your upper back muscles.”

Another idea Myers gave for relaxing your body is “letting your arms hang as if you’re trying to touch your toes, and then reaching up to the ceiling to see how tall you can reach.”

While you’re up, Kaplan suggested three shoulder-stretching exercises to do while standing at a wall:

• “Stand with the right side of your body 6 inches to a foot away from the wall. Bring your right arm behind you with just the hand on the wall. Then look over the outside shoulder. Repeat with the left arm.
• Stand 2 feet away facing the wall. Reach your arms up, press your hands firmly into the wall (holding your arms straight) and lean your hips back.
• Stand 3 to 4 feet away facing the wall. Hinge at the hips to create a 90-degree angle. Stretch your straight arms out alongside your ears with your hands pressing firmly into the wall. Then, keeping this hand-wall connection, let your head drop through your arms toward the floor and lean your hips back.”

If you don’t have time to leave your desk, Myers said, “if you take just a few seconds to try to touch your chin to your chest that really stretches the two muscles that run up the back of the skull. And then tip the head backwards to stretch out the front of the neck. Once you’re done with that, turn your chin to your shoulders — as if you’re looking over your shoulder — raise your chin up slightly and you’ll feel the stretch in the back of your neck.”

You can also do spinal twists while sitting in a chair, Kaplan suggested. “Rotate your belly and chest to one direction and let the neck follow until you are looking back over your shoulder. Take the hand of the direction you are turning to the back of your chair to also open the chest. Hold it for 30 seconds, then rotate to the other side.”

To stretch your hips while sitting, Kaplan said, “Bend your right knee and cross your right ankle over the left knee. Hinge forward over the legs. Hold it for 30 seconds and repeat it on the other side.”

Besides all the physical problems with lots of sitting, Kaplan said there’s an emotional risk too, because when “we lose our natural stature, it can bring a sense of loss of personal power and confidence.” All the more reason to strengthen your core with plenty of sit-ups and push-ups at the gym! And don’t skimp on those lunges, either! They stretch your hips and loosen the front of the pelvis.

By Amy De La Hunt, Health Blogger for SmartParenting