Health & Fitness

You're Probably Sitting Too Much and This is Why it's Bad for You

Ever had back pain?

You're Probably Sitting Too Much and This is Why it's Bad for You

How about knee pain? Or ankle pain? Any pain in any joint? Regular headaches and tight neck? Most of you probably said yes at least once, probably more than once. These are pretty normal things to have at some point in life and even multiple times, but are they actually normal? Support- and mobility organ problems are stated as being national diseases in most westernized modern countries, but not in countries like Japan... Why is that?

Much of the time, they don't sit in chairs.

You're Probably Sitting Too Much and This is Why it's Bad for You

Sitting is the new smoking. There's a reason why this is said, because it is. Some of you might be thinking, how could sitting possibly be as bad for me as smoking... It isn't, I think it's worse. We could remove a massive burden from the healthcare industry by just sitting less.

What does sitting do to me and you then, if it's so bad?

Everything we do, teaches our body and our nervous system something. Our body doesn't know the difference between exercising and stretching and normal life and movements and positions we do in it. If you're sitting in a bad position all day, what message do you think you're body is getting?

Let's get into the gritty details. Sitting keeps your hip flexors in a constant shortened and activated state and after a while your body learns to keep them tight all the time. Your body and your brain gets mixed up on what your hips actual mobility should be and you lose that mobility. This tightened state affects everything and it does it through your hips.

You're Probably Sitting Too Much and This is Why it's Bad for You

Most commonly tight hip flexors cause an anterior pelvic tilt, so called Donald Duck butt, but posterior pelvic tilt is possible too (pink panther butt). Both are are bad and affect your spinal curve, which is the core of everything. Anything wrong, twisted or painful in your body can most likely be connected to your spine and your hip and everything in your body is connected. Problems in your lower vertebrae will cause problems in your upper vertebrae, because they are connected. They cause the tight neck and regular headaches I mentioned earlier. Bad hip position will also cause bad position in your knees and ankles, which will cause problems. This can most often be seen as duck feet.

You're Probably Sitting Too Much and This is Why it's Bad for You

Fallen arches in your feet will cause your ankles to collapse, which will make your knees collapse inward so you have to turn your feet outward to keep your knees straight. This will cause knee and/or ankle pain some point in your life.

Finally back pain, it is quite often connected to a tilted hip and any problems that it has created. Your body is used to putting weight on certain vertebrae and when it goes to different vertebrae, pain ensues.

There's also the problem of rounded shoulders.

On top of hip flexors getting tight many of us sit with rounded shoulders and protruding head. Many of us have chronically tonic front shoulder muscles and upper pectorals and practically asleep back shoulder muscles. Protruding head is a massive strain on your neck muscles, which make them tonic. Our shoulders are the hips of our upper body and any problems with wrists and elbows are very likely to be connected to shoulder positions and the spine. Once again it's good to remember our bodies learn to keep these bad positions.

You're Probably Sitting Too Much and This is Why it's Bad for You

So what do I know?

Why would you listen to me? This take isn't of course a good replacement for professional advice and help and anything I say should be thought critically, but I have a lot of personal experience with these spinal/hip problems.

Here's my story..

I used to have a lot of problems with knee ankle pain when I was younger and they got worse as I got older. When I was in the army it got to the point I was taking pain meds like candy and in the end had to go to the doctor, because I could barely walk anymore. The source of the problems wasn't found out. I got a physically easier job and did my service.

Then I started going to the gym more and started to get problems with my hips. I started university studies and in the first week got drunk and twisted my ankle, badly.. doubled in size and purple in color badly.. It healed and my hip problems got worse in the gym (why I didn't make any connection, I don't know...). I kept hurting it again and again, general practitioners couldn't help and I tried fixing it myself. Then the real pain began. My sciatica started hurting and that didn't stop for 9 months and it would have been longer, if it wasn't for my godfather who's an osteopath.

So my osteopath looked at me for a few minutes and told me this..

Osteopath: "Well... you do know your hip is tilted, right?"

Me: "Oh yeah, I have an anterior pelvic tilt. I'm trying to fix it."

Osteopath: "Well that too, but what I meant is your hip is tilted on the other axis."

He put my hands on my hip bones and told me to look. It was as clear as day...

Osteopath: "Also, when did you hurt that left ankle? Look at it, it's all collapsed.."

Again.. Clear as day..

My hip was tilted on two axis and crunched up on one side. My left ankle was completely collapsed and my right leg was effectively inch shorter than my left. My hip had crunched up, because your brain wants to keep your eyes level (body always finds a way). I had one sided problems and pains all the way to my upper body. Everything is connected...

I could've known all this years ago... I was working out with twisted hip for years. No wonder I got hurt. My knee and ankle problems as a kid were caused by bad hip position, which was caused by too much sitting. I had Donald Duck butt and duck feet. Not anymore though, the sciatica problem was a couple years ago and my hip is gladly okay now and I'm a bit wiser now. Even the worst problems can be fixed and it's better to fix them sooner than later.

So what to take away from this long myTake, if you've read this far..

If you can, sit a little less. Every little bit counts. Every now and then try to remind your self to sit up straight, it'll add up. If you can work standing up, your body will thank you later.

I'll leave with the advice my osteopath told me.

"Movement is medicine. We humans evolved to be constantly moving and being static is not good for you. So, get up off the chair and go take a walk. It's one of the best things you can do for yourself."

You're Probably Sitting Too Much and This is Why it's Bad for You

Have a good day.

You're Probably Sitting Too Much and This is Why it's Bad for You
Post Opinion