The main reason for the development of back problems such as back pain , bulging discs , herniated discs , stenosis in the canal, the appearance of radiating pain (neuropathic pain) are the damages that occur when sitting on chairs. The damages of sitting expose the body to injuries, attacks of ‘busy back’ and spondylitis (displacement of the vertebra) and other pathologies. This article details the damages and their causes. It is likely that there are additional damages that are not yet known to us, but as you will see this list is quite long and pushes us to take responsibility for our bodies if our health is important to us, especially as the body matures.
Why does damage occur when sitting?
Our bodies are built and designed to stand up, to move, and not to be fixed in a certain posture for long hours. With a natural approach, we see that no animal in nature uses a device such as a chair to stabilize itself and help it be fixed for long hours. A chair is a cultural posture device designed to help us sit at a desk. Many of us make a living from prolonged sitting, have to drive and be in a car seat on the way to work and back. Then at home we are tired and hunch over armchairs and sofas, where our bodies also undergo unwanted changes.
The damage of sitting is cumulative and begins early in our lives . In kindergarten, school, high school, and sometimes even in the army, we sit facing backwards on armrests for long hours. Then, when acquiring a profession, at university or college, we sit without awareness of our body’s condition and the degenerative processes that our body is going through. From the age of one to six, our body has adapted to walking upright, moving freely without chronic pain, but from the age of six our body continues to grow, lengthen, and gain weight, but we are fixed in chairs at school and comfortable sofas at home. Due to the penetration of mobile devices into our lives, many young people are adopting habits of use in which their backs round and acquire a constant forward bend. Kyphosis (slouching) and posture problems develop at younger ages, and today back problems appear early in adolescence . It is no wonder, then, that herniated discs and herniated discs appear in the army, both in combat and non-combat settings. Men and women in their twenties and thirties are already experiencing back pain, and it is considered a common occurrence in the population. Back pain, pain when standing up from chairs, pain when bending forward while standing and straightening up are signs of the destructive processes that occur in our bodies due to sitting.
Metabolic syndrome is the process that any body goes through when sitting for more than 20 minutes straight and leaning back . Our body responds with a metabolic reduction, meaning a decrease in the body’s metabolism and with it atrophy of muscles, bones, joints, soft tissues and other vital systems. The conventional approach that some physical activity lasting half an hour to an hour will repair the accumulated damage of sitting is wrong and often even injures the body. The damage of sitting accumulates and accelerates as we grow older and shorten our healthy years.
Internal muscles that are essential for standing up, maintaining posture, and maintaining the structure of the spine, such as the erector spinae, atrophy when sitting and leaning back . Our body does not waste resources unnecessarily and allows the muscles to lose mass and tone. Specific muscles in the hip flexor group, especially the ilio-pseois muscle group, shorten, lose mass and tone. Because the ilio-pseois is connected to the vertebrae of the lower back, a situation occurs in which our lower back hurts when standing up from a chair. The hamstrings, which are located behind the hips, shorten and lose mass and tone. This is how we lose flexibility when bending forward, and in such a movement they passively stretch a chain of muscles and soft tissues in the lower back. Tension in the back and the inability to bend and rise from a standing forward bend are signs of atrophy of these muscles. Their supporting muscles, the quadriceps and hamstrings, weaken, making it difficult for us to walk as far as we could when we were younger. Additional muscles deep in the back and pelvis that are designed for stabilization also atrophy, giving us a wobbly feeling when we stand up from a chair.
The degenerative processes in the back also affect connective tissues (fascia), especially a large and important connective tissue, the Thoracolumbar Fascia, which covers most of our lower back and connects the ilio-psoas to the muscles and deep connective tissues. Connective tissues like this require movement to maintain their flexibility and vitality. They become attached due to the layering of collagen fibers that the body constantly produces. This is similar to the processes of adhesion and fixation while a limb undergoes fixation. Only movement will break these natural collagen fibers. Because the Thoracolumbar Fascia is responsible for transmitting and transferring diagonal forces during walking, its adhesion and degeneration produce back pain.
Prolonged hunched sitting causes the development of kyphosis (hunchback) , i.e. the development of a hunchback in the upper back due to the tendency of the upper back to lean forward and the lifting of the neck to neutralize that bending. As a result, neck pain, shoulder and shoulder pain, neck pain and similar pathologies develop in the lower back – the development of cervical spondylosis, spinal stenosis and even cervical disc herniation.
These degenerative processes penetrate deep into the environment of the intervertebral discs in the spine . The elasticity of the discs and their health also depend on the environment and tissues that surround them. During prolonged sitting, fats penetrate the deepest back erectors, such as the multifidus, whose function is to maintain the structure of the vertebrae in their place and the healthy and balanced transfer of forces. The back erectors undergo degeneration and are factors in the formation of disc bulges and disc herniations. These processes are unknown to us both because we have become accustomed to living with back pain and because our backs are in constant contact with backrests. The backrests ‘confuse’ and weaken the nerve messages that come from the back to the brain. In other words, we do not feel the early signs of weakness also because these are muted as a result of passively leaning back.
The spine has arches that are essential for standing up, lifting weight, absorbing shocks, and positioning the center of gravity that supports the upper back. When leaning back, the dorsal arch remains in a convex rather than concave position for extended periods of time, creating a force balance that is opposite to what the vertebrae in the lower back should receive . Also, leaning on so-called ‘orthopedic chairs’ that fix the dorsal arch in a concave position allows the dorsal arch to weaken in a passive position, weakening the back and exposing the body to injury.
The damage of sitting does not spare any system in the body. As a principle, joints in the body need movement to maintain their vitality and health. A fixed joint literally breaks down. Weakening of the quadriceps muscles as well as lack of movement and other poor posture habits damage the knees and cause pain. These habits shape our posture and cause collapse inward (X knees) or outward (O knees) along with an unbalanced transfer of force to the pelvis. The ankles, which are most of the time fixed in shoes, atrophy and with them the arches of the feet. All of this has an impact on the transfer of force to the pelvis and posture in general. The damage of sitting causes the blood flow down below the knees to the calves, ankles and feet to be poor and poor blood reaches these parts.
During prolonged sitting, the digestive system breaks down fats in a reduced manner, causing weight gain and the development of pre-diabetes . During prolonged sitting, blood pressure actually increases. Additional damage occurs to the bones along with a loss of bone mass of 1% each year. Cumulatively, after 20 years of office work, we lose 20% of bone mass! The cumulative damage causes us to lose 6-7 years of health to the body, that is, years in which we do not take medication.
The body’s lymphatic system, which is responsible for removing waste from cells and the intercellular space, does not function without movement . Prolonged sitting poisons the body and causes a lot of morbidity and, in our opinion, even the development of malignant diseases (cancer). The lack of waste removal, together with the lack of movement, causes the development of bad moods that do not dissipate during the day.
In summary, the damage caused by sitting causes:
- Metabolic syndrome – a drop in the body’s electrical activity
- Loss of muscle mass and muscle tone
- General weakness in the body
- Back pain and other chronic pain in the upper back and neck
- Exposing joints to injuries
- Exposing the body to injuries and bruises
- Kyphosis, painful and harmful postural habits
- Bad moods
- Bone mass loss
- Poisoning of the body due to failure to eliminate waste
So what do we do?
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- Morning practice that corrects posture and prepares our bodies for a day at the office.
- Changing sitting habits – from passive sitting with a backrest to active sitting without a backrest
- Standing work position
- Avoiding long periods of sitting – standing still
- Avoiding leaning back on armchairs and sofas