Do the moments in which you have to stand for long periods of time seem endless to you? When this happens, the body has mechanisms to warn us that certain muscles are being overloaded and we should change position. This does not usually happen to older people precisely because these cases are usually punctual, but things get complicated when muscles are harmed by constant habits during our day to day life.
The time we spend sitting, for example, is usually much more than the time we spend immobile in an upright position, and that is bad news for our health.
We spend a large part of our working hours sitting, but in our free time or even during our domestic life this habit does not change. When eating, dining, watching television… the same posture for different activities the same weight being distributed over the same surface of our body and the same muscle groups maintaining tension in the same way.
Although it is not a harmful position if it is not maintained for prolonged periods, we abuse it a lot and that has negative consequences for our body Here you have some samples of it.
1. The lower edge of the seat produces varicose veins
This part of the structure that supports you press the back of your thighs and cuts off blood circulation to a good part of your legs, especially in chairs with a concave surface where the bottom edge points upward. Although you may not notice it, over the years this can favor the appearance of those marked veins.
2. It is bad for the circulatory system
By spending a long time sitting we encourage the appearance of high concentrations of fat in the blood, since it is not burned by the muscles. Blockage of blood vessels becomes a little more likely, and can increase blood pressure something that is harmful to the entire body but particularly to the brain, a very energetically demanding organ.
3. The body loses its elasticity
This is one of the easiest effects to verify directly. People with sedentary habits who spend many hours sitting They have a less flexible and more damaged spine, and the same thing happens with the tendons and ligaments, especially in the legs, which are gathered in front of the seat. The range of motion becomes much smaller, and this lack of flexibility can lead to other problems, such as a high risk of injury in large muscle groups and a propensity for herniated discs.
Although there are ways to counteract this negative effect, such as yoga, the ideal is prevention rather than cure.
4. Loss of bone density in the legs
The bones are more or less strong, in part, due to the effort required of them. Some wrestlers spend a few minutes a week kicking a hard surface to strengthen their shins, and the same logic could work the other way around when we’re on a seat: what is not used is lost Therefore, the risk of suffering from osteoporosis would also increase.
When sitting in front of a computer, the head tends to move forward to see the screen and keyboard. This produces a decompensation in the distribution of weight throughout our body in which the shoulder muscles do not perform very well, as they become shorter and are moved forward This fact alone is necessary to alter the center of gravity of our body and produce a series of decompensations in posture.
6. Muscles weaken (especially the glutes)
The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle of all those that populate the human body, and It is also the most punished during long periods spent in a sitting position This reduces the concentration of muscle fibers in these areas, since they remain “asleep” due to inactivity, and as a consequence they lose their shape and part of their strength (which is serious considering the role of the glutes in the maintaining proper posture while standing).
Something similar happens with other smaller muscles: while sitting we may not expect too much strength from them, but that does not mean that we do not need it in many other contexts. After spending many hours daily in a chair for the last few months, these muscles n****o magically recover their potential when they detach themselves from the seat They remain, so to speak, off guard, and therefore need to work together to make moves that should be made by only some of them.
7. The brain undergoes structural changes
One study found that sedentary rats suffered significantly more vascular disorders than control rats. We explained it in detail in a previous article: “A sedentary lifestyle causes changes in the brain.”
The most obvious answer is that we must Avoid spending so much time on a chair or sofa However, assuming that the habit of sitting depends in part on our obligations and our work, certain recommendations can be followed to mitigate the harmful effects that we have seen:
1. Sit with your trunk vertical as far as possible, and get up to walk a few minutes every half hour.
2. Practice varied stretches every day especially those that concern the hip flexors.
3. Use a backless seat or a fitball Just the right size for sitting. This will partly prevent the weight from being poorly distributed for a long time. The thighs should remain parallel to the floor and the knee should be bent at a 90-degree angle.
4. Remember to keep your head looking forward, without being too far forward. The ears should be in line with the shoulders, and the shoulders should be back. If you have trouble seeing what’s on the screen, enlarge the size of what appears on it or increase the brightness slightly (without burning your eyes!).
5. To finish, do exercises to strengthen your glutes Like the squats (with or without weight) or frog jump. Here is a video that may help you:
