In today’s era, we see more and more people sitting more. Some individuals have desk jobs where they are sitting for 5-8 hours a day. Since we know that sitting is now considered the new smoking, you can see an epidemic of things occurring with sitting.
Based on research from Harvard, too much sitting increases risks of heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other chronic illnesses. To a Chiropractor, sitting is death to the brain. Your brain depends on movement to increase its batteries. Less movement equals less charged batteries. Less charged batteries lead to less optimal function.
So, what to do if you are sitting for 4-8 hours a day at work and have no other choice?
First, look into being able to having a standing desk. Many corporations are starting to implement these things as they know standing helps keep an individual more productive, healthier and improved morale. If a standing desk is not an option, look into exercise ball chairs. In my office, my staff sits on those which is still not as good as standing but it is less pressure on the back compared to a standard office desk chair. Click here to see the ones we have in our office. Click here to view image on good desk ergonomic posture.
Second, is to stand up and move around every 50 minutes. When you sit for more than an hour at a time, you are changing the elasticity and integrity of your connective tissue (muscles, tendons, ligaments). Changing the integrity of your tissue is not a good thing. The reason behind all of this is that, it starts to create imbalances in your posture and eventually, the body adapts to these new changes as normal. Not a good thing! A patient of mine sent me a link to Amazon that has standing desks going for $20. I highly recommend a standing desk. Click here to view on Amazon.
Third, here are a couple of exercises you can do every 1-2 hours that truly can help improve your posture and your neck. In modern times, we see many children and adults with anterior head carriage or forward head posture. 99% of the people I see in the public have this. There are a lot of reasons why we are seeing more of this and the biggest reason is a body that is not adapting well to its environment. This means, the body is creating defense physiology (a defense system) due to the overloaded stressful environment. Now, there are some things you can do and the one exercise I love and even did it when I was in Chiropractic school is a neck extension exercise. Great exercise to refire those muscles to help keep them holding a good posture as best as possible.
Fourth would be specific stretches. These stretches are based upon how the nervous system deactivates specific muscles to defend itself. These are the same muscles that tighten when sitting for too long. Coincidence? I think not. :) Here are a couple stretches to do a couple times throughout the day to help. Hip Flexor Stretch – I do these stretches while I am working at my desk at times.
Last but not least is the most important of them all. Chiropractic care. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the brain needs movement in order to charge its batteries. Now, Chiropractic plays the biggest role in this because over 60% of the movement that charges the brain comes from the spine. If you are sitting for long periods of time, your spine is starting to lose its standard motion. When motion starts to decrease, less charging of the brain. On top of that, less motion in the spine causes global effects on the body that starts to decrease the ability to handle stress (physical – sitting, chemical, mental/emotional). The less an organism can adapt to its environment, the more it breaks down.
If you have any questions or want additional information, you can email me by clicking here.
Until next time, BE well… LIVE well… The CHOICE is yours!
Dr. Vic Manzo
Pediatric/Family Wellness Chiropractor
Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner
Best Under 40 – Suburban Life Media – 2016
