The Importance of Sitting Posture

For this week’s blog post, we found a Healthline article entitled “Why Sitting Too Much Is Seriously Bad For Your Health” by Joe Leech. In this article, he goes more in depth into the omnipresent threat sitting has on your health and well-being. A good portion of the sitting habit is actually due to a person’s occupation. Did you know that the average office worker sits about 15 hours a day, compared to agriculture workers that only sit approximately three hours a day! So what does this mean for your health? Sitting a good portion of the day decreases calories burned, increases weight gain and risk of premature death, as well as the risk of getting diseases such as diabetes.

This can seem to snowball, so let’s unpack each of those sitting side effects one by one. The first topic we’ll tackle is decreasing the amount of calories you burn. You may not know it but small activities such as standing, walking, and even fidgeting will burn some calories. These are called non-exercise activity thermogenesis or NEAT. Lacking this will lead to weight gain. When you sit in a chair either at your desk at work or in a lecture hall, these activities are almost non-existent, meaning you are not burning as many calories as you could. Going back to the comparison of office workers and agriculture workers; those in agriculture burn about 1,000 more calories! This is also the reasoning behind why sitting increases your risk of weight gain.

Additionally, the article in Healthline referenced “observational data from over 1 million people” that linked sitting or a sedentary lifestyle to a greater risk of premature death. The article stated that “most sedentary people had a 22-49% greater risk of early death” (Leech). Along these same lines, increased sitting is also linked to several chronic diseases and conditions, like type 2 diabetes. In fact the article stated that there is “a 112% increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes, and a 147% increase in heart disease risk” (Leech). Sedentary behaviors such as sitting for long periods of time, or even walking less than 1,500 steps per day is strongly correlated with a major increase in insulin resistance, which is linked to the development of diabetes.

It is important to also look at this issue from a physical therapy perspective. Sitting is not only bad for your general health and well-being but it can also have negative effects on your spine. In fact, sitting in a slumped position causes about 275% increase in pressure in your intervertebral disc as compared to standing posture. Over time, this can cause back pain and other issues in your spine such as a herniated disc. Therefore, not only is it important to get up and take a walk every once in awhile during your work day, but it is important to maintain good posture while you are sitting. This will prevent back pain and other pain associated with poor posture such as: neck pain, headaches, and tight muscles. Below we have pictured what good posture should look like while sitting to avoid these pains! It will take practice to maintain this, so be mindful!

Strategies to Reduce the Impact of Sitting:

Often times we round out our shoulders when we slouch causing tightness doing a doorway pec stretch can help

Our muscles in the front of our hips also get tight so try a lunging hip flexor stretch

Get up and take a quick walk every 30 minutes you’ve spent sitting

During commercial breaks get up and do a quick set of simple exercises like push-ups, sit-up, marches, lunges, etc. If you stream then try to these between episodes during your binge-watching session.

When you sit keep your shoulders and head back, and support your low back

To find a good natural posture for yourself slump all the way forward and then go all the way in the opposite direction bringing your head and arms back and arching your spine. Your natural posture should be where you come to rest after doing this.