I couldn't get much training in over the last two weeks as I traveled across the US. I calculated that I spent 36 hours in a seated position over the course of the trip, in various planes, cars, buses, and taxis. This was pretty dreadful for me.
The seated position, with the knees bent and the back resting on a support, is one of the most harmful postures for a human being. It's a double whammy, attacking our structural stability from top and bottom. Here's how the damage occurs.
Lower Body
If you're sitting right now, reach down and palpate the underside of your knee and thigh
. Unless you've shifted in some strange way to touch the area, you will feel that the knee ligaments and hamstrings are soft and relaxed. In itself this is fine, all day different muscle groups are contracting, relaxing, twisting, and stretching. The problem comes when a body spends prolonged time in this knees bent seated posture. Over time, because the hamstrings aren't being used, they actually shrink, so that their resting length resembles the length they have as you sit.
This means that when you stand up, your hamstrings will be shorter than the length required to stand properly. They will tug down on the pelvis where they connect. Your pelvis becomes tilted slightly back, which throws off the natural S curve of your spine, which then leads to forwards sloping shoulders and a neck that sticks out like a turtle. If you don't know what this looks like find an office worker who doesn't exercise and you'll be guaranteed to see it.
Upper Body
At the same time all that shortening is happening in the legs, your back is also being affected. When we sit in a chair, we aren't using our back muscles (specifically the spinae erectae) to support ourselves. We're using the structure of the chair.
Imagine I were to equip you with a robot support device that slipped over your arm and did 90% of the work your biceps and triceps usually do. Here's a device just like that developed by Ratheon.
You can imagine that after a few weeks like this your arms would shrink to little more than skin and flab, and you'd rely on the robot arm more an more.
This is exactly what happens to people living a Western lifestyle who begin sitting in chairs from early childhood. The supporting back muscles get both tighter and weaker from disuse. In those rare times people sit in a backless chair or on the floor they find that after a few minutes it's very uncomfortable and hard to sit still. This is because the back muscles are literally failing to do their intended work without the crutch of a chair back.
Weak back muscles will exaggerate the deformation of the S curve, compromise your posture, and lead to back pain and injury.The Bottom Line
We need to think about sitting just as we're learning to think about rich, calorie laden foods. As a once-in-a-while treat. Had a long day and are totally exhausted? Sure, crash on the sofa for a half hour. But don't park there for hours on end. And most importantly, avoid getting yourself into work situations that require 40+ hours of sitting a week. If you have no choice, the best you can do is to create a standing desk, or even better, a treadmill desk.
If that isn't feasible, use a balance ball for a chair. 
If that isn't possible, then try to keep your knees at 90 degrees so that the hamstrings are slightly flexed and don't use the back of your chair to support you. But know that those small changes aren't enough to offset the damage, and look for ways out of a job that is chipping away at your health and posture. You'll look and feel better for it.
7 comments:
But I need my job so i can pay my bills qnd mortgage and post from my iPhone
Patrick,
I know you have said in the past that you're a very lazy person. I, too, am the type who'd rather do nothing than do something.
Knowing these traits, what is the best way to break the habits necessary for good health? (I want to sit straighter, for example, and also want to not impulsively eat sugary foods, which I do frequently).
Sometimes I feel as though my mind doesnt even take part in my decision to eat that donut or muffin - its quite literally impulsive and I kick myself afterwards.
Re:" But I need my job so i can pay my bills qnd mortgage and post from my iPhone."
I get the jokiness of this, but it does point to the underlying premise that you can a) be healthy and happy or b) hold down a desk job and pay your bills. This is a false choice and people will wake up to the fact that a job that makes you sick isn't good for anyone.
Re: Edith's comment above, you have to understand that you are bigger than your habits. By applying a mindful awareness to your actions you can actually watch your habit arise, grip your physiology, and force your hand. Let this happen a few times and you'll start to get sick of the whole experience and want to change from deep inside, not just as a fleeting thought.
Eating a donut with mindfulness as you chew that it is making you less healthy greatly reduces the pleasure, and therefore craving for the next one.
I'm a programmer who spends MANY hours working at a computer, and thus often at a desk. As such, I found my body pretty much starting to fit the description you had of "an office worker who doesn't exercise," in dealing with quite a bit of neck and back pain as well.
What I ended up doing was buying an adjustable height desk. They are crazy-expensive usually, but last year I found a company called GeekDesk that sold just the frames for them at a reasonable price (they now sell the whole desk apparently, as well). I ended up using a door for the top, and the change to part-time standing has made a HUGE difference in how I feel. What you have written here confirms a lot of what I suspected health-wise, but didn't actually know the physiology of -- thanks for this post.
For those folks considering working at a standing desk, or an adjustable height desk ( the latter worked out much better for me than for -- flexibility in position whiskey), I cannot stress strongly enough how "worth it" the switch is if your work requires a lot of desk time.
Meant to include the URL, in case anybody else is interested in a company that makes those frames ( It took me forever to find them): www.GeekDesk.com I'm really happy with mine, FWIW.
LOL - "flexibility in position whiskey" was supposed to be "flexibility in position was key" ...dictation software gone bad.
OK, I'll shut up now. : )
Heh heh I thought you were talking about how you need an adjustable height because you never know where you need to place that glass of whiskey.
That's my problem too so it clicked immediately.
There's many more physiological things I didn't cover in this that happen as you sit, especially to your intervertebrae discs and circulation. None of it is good.
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