HomeBlogAre the Side Effects of Sitting a Threat to Your Health?
Are the Side Effects of Sitting a Threat to Your Health?
In the Age of Technology, most humans are spending increasingly less time on our feet, and increasingly more hours in some sort of sitting posture. Driving, working on a computer, being entertained and becoming educated all entail long bouts of sitting with few interludes of standing, walking or large muscle movement of any kind.
While working at a desk job is often coveted over manual labor, it can have deleterious effects on overall health, particularly when leisure activities are also sedentary in nature. The human body is designed to move, and being sedentary interferes with all of your body’s systems, causing them to malfunction and deteriorate.
Standing and being physically active throughout the day have many positive effects on your overall health, including:
Increased blood flow, with increased delivery of oxygen and nutrients to cells throughout your body
Improved bone density and joint function
Better posture
Enhanced organ function
Stronger, more pliant muscles and joints
Better mood
Flatter stomach
The Deadly Dangers of Sitting
There are several ways in which sitting for long hours has adverse effects on your health:
Increased risk of metabolic and cardiovascular disease
Malfunctioning pancreas and increased insulin resistance
Increased risk of colon, breast and endometrial cancers
Flabby abdominal and core muscles
Incontinence and organ prolapse
Tight hip flexor muscles and saggy buttocks
Reduced circulation in legs, leading to cellulite and varicose veins
10 Tips for Countering the Negative Effects of Sitting
When it comes to sitting for long hours day after day, many of us have little choice. Work and school often limit our mobility. But there are many things you can do to counteract the negative effects of sitting:
Take a two minute activity break at least once per hour. Stand up and stretch, jump up and down, or take a lap around your work space.
Go outdoors and walk during your lunch break, or climb the stairs in your building.
If possible, elevate your computer and stand at your workspace.
Walk, bike or take public transportation rather than driving.
Instead of binging your favorite TV shows on the weekends, get out and get active.
Join a gym or group exercise class and commit to regular workouts, including resistance training.
Stretch daily, taking extra time for hip flexor, chest, calf and low back muscles.
Work your core muscles at least twice a week with planks, bridges and crunches.
Check your posture while sitting: Keep both feet flat on the floor, pull your shoulders back and down, tuck your elbows in, support your low back, lengthen your neck.
Elevate your heart rate for at least 15 minutes daily, either in one bout, or in shorter spurts throughout the day.
Exercising may seem time consuming and it requires effort, but it is time and effort well spent. Undoing the damage of sitting once negative side effects have set in is much harder than taking preventative measures.
The team at NYDNRehab is dedicated to keeping you moving with the best form and function. Our cutting edge therapies and state-of-the-art technologies can help you learn to move with mechanical efficiency, placing the least amount of stress on your body.
Contact NYDNRehab today, and ask for a gait and movement analysis. We will identify what you are doing wrong, and show you how to move, sit and stand in ways that promote health, wellness and improved quality of life.
In this instance, an athlete was originally diagnosed with minor quadriceps muscle strain and was treated for four weeks, with unsatisfactory results. When he came to our clinic, the muscle was not healing, and the patients’ muscle tissue had already begun to atrophy.
Upon examination using MSUS, we discovered that he had a full muscle thickness tear that had been overlooked by his previous provider. To mitigate damage and promote healing, surgery should have been performed immediately after the injury occurred. Because of misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment, the patient now has permanent damage that cannot be corrected.
The most important advantage of Ultrasound over MRI imaging is its ability to zero in on the symptomatic region and obtain imaging, with active participation and feedback from the patient. Using dynamic MSUS, we can see what happens when patients contract their muscles, something that cannot be done with MRI. From a diagnostic perspective, this interaction is invaluable.
Dynamic ultrasonography examination demonstrating the full thickness tear and already occurring muscle atrophy due to misdiagnosis and not referring the patient to proper diagnostic workup
Demonstration of how very small muscle defect is made and revealed to be a complete tear with muscle contraction under diagnostic sonography (not possible with MRI)
Complete tear of rectus femoris with large hematoma (blood)
Separation of muscle ends due to tear elicited on dynamic sonography examination