Sitting is like smoking-unfiltered-menthols-while-easing-cheese-coated-lard-and-screaming-at-your-spouse bad

“Sitting is like smoking-unfiltered-menthols-while-easing-cheese-coated-lard-and-screaming-at-your-spouse bad. “ A quote I love from AJ Jacobs in his book Drop Dead Healthy.

He goes on to document research that shows that sitting puts you at risk for the following:

•   Heart disease
•  Diabetes
• Obesity
•  Cancer including colon and ovarian

Sadly, studies show that even regular gym going can’t fully undo the harm of sitting. A study conducted by the University of South Carolina and Pennington Biomedical Research Center compared heart problems in men who spent more than 23 hours per week sitting and those who sat for less than 11 hours. The sitters had a 64 percent higher chance of fatal heart disease. Of those studied many were exercisers a t the gym

Jacobs fails to mention the physical maladies, we see as Therapists that caused either directly or indirectly  as a result of prolonged sitting.

1.  Back Pain: The vertebrae are constructed to provide equal weight bearing about 3 points. When most individuals sit position themselves in flexion causing increased weight bearing to the front of the vertebrae which in turn squishes the malleable discs posterior. This in turn leads to degeneration, bulging, and ultimately herniation of a disc .
2.  Breakdown and decubiti: Because most people do not distribute their weight about the 6 potential bases of support, they bear weight on their Ischial Tubs or their sacrum leading to the breakdown of the skin
3.  Neuromuscular Deficit: When we sit in flexion or with our legs extended to compensate for a chair that is too low or too high. We do not weight bear into the bottoms of our feet and our pelvic floor. This contributes to a decreased stimulation which will decrease proprioception. Proprioception is the sense that tells our body where it is in space and is an integral component of balance. Research shows that proprioception decreases with age and there is a significant.

The reason that sitting so bad from a biomechanical standpoint is that in most people sitting reinforces the flexion components at your hips, pelvis and spine.

The reasons being:

1.  Chairs are the wrong size for most people. There are many varieties in the size of people, but when it comes to chairs, there is a one size fits all mentality. It is like having every person on earth wear a size 5 shoe.

2. Most people lack hip flexion. If you told this to me 5 years ago, I never would have believed it to be true.  I mean most people can easily bring their knees to their chest.  The fact is that neither I nor most patients can bring their knees to even 90 degrees of flexion without compensating up the kinetic chain.

Take the following test:

1.  Stand holding onto a stable surface with one hand.
2.  Take you free hand and place your fingers just above your ASIS on the same side as your body.
3.   Raise the leg that is on the same side that you are palpating.
4.  Stop when you begin feel your ASIS  move into your fingers.(This is the point when your innominate begins to move into posterior rotation).

At the point just before your ASIS begin to move should be the height of your chair.

For me this is about it is about 80 degrees.

Any height that is lower than that level will cause your innominates to posteriorly rotate and you will be weight bearing on your coccyx and sacrum versus your pelvic floor. This will also alter the force of gravity acting on your vertebrae and move the weight bearing onto your discs posteriorly.

What can we do? Studies show that we on average spend 56 hours a week sitting.

Here are some tips:

1.  Raise the height of your seat to the level just before innominate rotation. In my case I am now sitting on pillows so that the angle of my hips is in 80 degrees of flexion.  If the chair raises great, if not add pillows.
2. Straddle the chair. Take the above test again but this time abduct and externally rotate your hips. Notice you can now go lower without innominate rotation.
3.  Mobilize the structural restrictions in your thigh.

Ø  If you begin to rotate between 0-30 degrees palpate the circumference of tissue in the entire lower 1/3 of your thigh.
Ø  If rotation began between 30 and 60 degrees palpate the middle 1/3.
Ø  Between 60-90 degrees the upper 1/3.

Goto www.sigproed.com for a list of resources and our upcoming classes