In our daily life, we are more and more required to remain in a sitting position for a long time. Even if it seems safe and often comfortable in the short term, harmful effects can impact our shape and our health in the long term. What are the solutions to counter the difficulties associated with prolonged sitting?
What are the disorders associated with prolonged sitting?
Prolonged sitting causes short, medium and long term disturbances. And among them, we find most often:
- Decreased joint flexibility
- An increase in inflammation of the joints, and the tissues around the joint
- Hypertonicity (stiffness) of some muscles to the detriment of others
- A postural imbalance
- Low back pain
- An increased risk of developing chronic diseases linked to a sedentary lifestyle (obesity, diabetes, etc.)
- Optimize your workspace to prevent risks
So what to do
To prevent the onset of health problems related to prolonged sitting posture, it is advisable to optimize your workstation. The ideal is to be able to regularly vary the places and heights of the work surface. Example: after 20 minutes of continuous work, you can go from sitting at the desk to standing at a counter height for 20 minutes, then to the sitting posture on a gymball (large ball at seat height of a classic chair). ) for 20 minutes. The goal is to get up regularly but also to reduce the joint blockage that causes inflammation.
Exercises to prevent the onset of pain associated with prolonged sitting
Most stretches can help loosen up the body, which becomes increasingly stiff from prolonged sitting positions. The two most interesting muscles to stretch are the psoas muscle, as well as the pecs. When you are seated, the psoas muscle that hangs over the thigh and lower back remains permanently contracted. This muscle therefore eventually stiffens, which can cause low back pain. The advice of the expert fitness and health coach at home is to stretch for a long time, more than 20 seconds in a row while maintaining the posture. To do this, pull the extended leg back. And the more you neck down while keeping this leg straight, the more you will increase the stretch. In the same way, it seems interesting to stretch the pectorals because these muscles are permanently contracted when you are in a sitting position with the arms forward, as when writing on a computer, driving, or even using a smartphone. The following pose involves pulling the elbows back with your hands behind your head and holding the stretch for more than 20 seconds. A little bonus tip: during a session reserved for stretching only, the longer a stretch the more flexibility you gain. We can go up to 4 minutes of maintaining it. during a session reserved only for stretching, the longer a stretch, the more flexibility you gain. We can go up to 4 minutes of maintaining it. during a session reserved only for stretching, the longer a stretch, the more flexibility you gain. We can go up to 4 minutes of maintaining it.
Inflammation due to prolonged sitting posture occurs due to prolonged contact of two body tissues, such as two joints. For this reason, getting up, walking and / or working on mobility can help decrease the risk of inflammation. Here are two types of mobility that can help with pelvic / back pain and shoulder / upper back pain. Mobility of the pelvis with anteversion / retroversion: This mobility allows movement to be found where the sitting posture greatly increases the joint contact of the pelvis and lumbar type vertebrae. For movement, all you have to do is pull your glutes backwards by turning your pelvis and then rotate your pelvis upwards and forwards. Mobility of the shoulder and scapula: this mobility makes it possible to counter the blocking of the shoulders and shoulder blades which tend to go forward and outward respectively with the use of the arms forward. The movement is simple with a rotation of the shoulders and bringing / spreading of the shoulder blades. Turn your elbows sideways 10 times in one direction and then 10 times in the other.
At the end of the day, take 2 minutes to relax the muscles that are contracted the most. We then speak of muscle in hypertonicity. Massaging muscle tissue will reduce muscle tension and pain.
How to relax your muscle
To relax this muscle, you can use typical Blackroll brand massage rollers and balls. I offer two exercises to massage the lower back and upper pectorals / trapezius. 15 seconds per muscle massaged per day may be enough to see positive effects.
- Pelvic anteversion
- Pelvic retroversion
- Stretching the pecs
- Psoas stretch
- Lumbar self massage
- Self massage of the pecs
- Self massage of the trapezius
- Shoulder rotation
All these exercises make it possible to counter the difficulties encountered in the event of prolonged sitting if they are carried out daily. In order to prevent rather than cure, don’t forget that the most interesting thing is to work on muscle building in a balanced and complete way.