Overcome the effects of sitting

17/01/2024

Written by Bowen Ji

One of the fascinating things about the human body is our ability to complete amazing movements. However, through time, as most of us gradually shift towards desk-based jobs, we often find ourselves sitting for long periods of time (whether at home or at work). You see, our bodies weren't designed for this! They are actually designed to navigate around our surroundings and hunt. Our body moves optimally when all our muscles work effectively with one another. As one muscle contracts, another one stretches to help stabilize your joints through various movements. 

There are two key types of muscles to help describe this phenomenon:

• Agonist muscles - causes your muscles to shorten the distance between two joints (your biceps bulge during bicep curls).

• Antagonist muscles are the ones on the opposite side that relaxes and lengthens during this time (your triceps during a bicep curl, which helps stabilize and prevent hyperextension at the elbow).

The issue with prolonged sitting

Prolonged sitting, especially in a poorly set-up office environment, can lead to stiffness and hyperactivity of undesired muscles, which can lead to muscular imbalances. Muscles may become weakened due to prolonged time spent in stretched and lengthened positions. Overall, this can lead to inefficient movement patterns, which places undesirable stress on our tendons, ligaments and muscles. This may ultimately lead to issues such as pain, discomfort, headaches, and potential injuries down the road.

Common signs

Although everyone’s situation is different, here are some of the most common signs and symptoms found with prolonged desk job duties:

• Stiff lower back and hip flexor muscles which can lead to anterior pelvic tilt (where your pelvis rotates forward in a tilted butt wink position). This leads to weak glutes and deep intrinsic core muscle that normally help stabilise your trunk.

• Tight hamstring (potentially) - Weak/poorly activated glutes can lead to overactivity in your hamstrings during hip bending movements to help compensate. An analogy is like a rowing team, if your key member underperforms during a race, other team members must work harder to complete the task.

• Rounded shoulders - often due to poor seated posture that can result in tight chest, neck and latissimus muscles. This can lead to under-utilisation of your mid-back and intrinsic shoulder-blade muscles that normally helps stabilise your shoulder during movements.

• Headaches and neck pains - Your neck is a highly sensitive region as many nerves travel along this space through your upper trapezius into your arms. Therefore, it’s common to experience headaches, neck pain, and potential nerve related irritations down your arm.

solution?

If any of the above common symptoms sound familiar to you, have no fear! To help simplify things, we have conjured up some simple pointers to help you prevent injuries, and improve optimal body function. 

• Stretch and mobilise your tight and overactive muscles

• Mobilise the region that’s been underactive. Simply moving can go a long way!

• Train the muscles that are under-utilised and weak (usually your antagonist muscles on the opposite side)

• Start light -  your aim is activation by retraining the muscles that’s gone to sleep.
  

  For instance, if you have a stiff lower back:

• Stretch - your lower back, hip flexors, and hamstrings (if tight)

• Mobilise -  lower back (lumbar spine) with pelvic tilt exercises. 

• Strengthen - your glutes and deep core muscles, including your lower six pack muscle (glute bridges for glutes, and trunk rotation exercises for deep core).
  

  If you experience neck pain and/or have excessive rounded shoulders:

• Stretch/release - your chest, upper trapezius (neck), and latissimus dorsi

• Mobilize - your shoulder and shoulder blade in different directions

• Strengthen your mid back and external rotator muscles around the shoulder blade.

In essence, performing exercises that emphasise good posture (with your shoulders back and down) are actually all beneficial!

Tips for setting up your workstation:

• Adjust your computer to be eye-level, which helps reduce strain placed on your neck and upper back muscles

• Have your forehead level with your forearm, and parallel to the floor

• Use an ergonomic mouse and keyboard that’s friendly to your wrist (neutral wrist position).

• Avoid repetitive overreaching - keep the mouse within a reachable position.

• Try not to rest your wrist in a constant position for too long.

• Take breaks to move around and stretch

Final message

This general guide should help you establish a basic foundation towards maintaining better movement. By simply moving, we can help reduce many of the risks associated with prolonged sitting. For personalised exercise selection, please feel free to approach any one of us on the gym floor for advice!