How Sitting & Poor Posture Can Affect Our Body

 

So, let us take some time to examine sitting and how it affects our body. I touched on this briefly in my most recent blog post. Through that previous post we discovered that individuals who have a desk that requires them sit nearly every day for extended periods of time, tend to have high rates of neck, shoulder, and low back pain. We also learned that performing physical activity on a regular basis helps to alleviate some of this pain and that specific shoulder resistance exercises can lead to a lower incidence of reported neck pain.

Sitting for prolonged amounts of time can lead to anatomical issues as well. Maintaining a constant body position for a significant amount of time each day, for months or years on end can lead to postural distortions and muscular imbalances. By this I mean that sitting in a position similar to the picture to the right with the shoulders internally rotated, forward head posture or chin jutted forward and rounding of the upper back can lead to an imbalance between the muscles on the front of your body and the muscles on the back of your body. So if you sit as mentioned, you may have a very tight chest and an overstretched or weak upper back.

One must view the body as a chain. If there is a kink in the chain in one area, there may be issues with movement in other areas of the chain. Many of our muscles are linked together through connective tissues. They can be grouped into interdependent systems. If we maintain poor posture for extended periods of time such as that mentioned above, we are informing our central nervous system that this is how we are “supposed” to be. Our central nervous responds through allowing our muscles to adapt to the length or tightness or looseness with which they are in during these prolonged positions. Our body is not meant to be in this position. We are meant to remain upright. In an ideal world, when you are standing still, from a lateral view, I should be able to draw a straight line from your ear, to the middle of your shoulder, middle of the hip, middle of the knee, and the out the bottom of the heel.

When our body is out of alignment (a kink in the chain) and unable to move correctly, it can lead to pain. Low back pain, so called “sciatica”, neck pain, headaches, all of these can be positively affected by specific corrective exercise techniques as well as through proper posture during stationary and dynamic activity activities. Examples of these include frequent breaks from sitting, sitting or standing up straight with the shoulders back when sitting and standing, and participating in a regular exercise program. Stay tuned for my next blog post which will examine through research, the possible effects sitting can have on your health.

Thanks,

Joe