Exactly why is too much sitting bad for you? Let's look a few obvious reasons.
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 The human body was designed for constant motion and activity. For hundreds of thousands of years, we spent most of the day walking, gathering, hunting and farming—competing for each calorie that we ate. People sat on the ground or on logs for brief periods to rest. There were no desks, recliners, or sofas.

  Adults are now sitting around more than at any other time in history. Based on data from the American Heart Association, over 80 percent of all US jobs are now sedentary. The amount of time we spend sitting in front of screens, which tempt us with dopamine-driven feedback loops, is skyrocketing. And there can be rather serious consequences. Various studies have associated prolonged sitting with back pain, diabetes, obesity, cancer, and psychological distress. Some authors have gone so far as to describe chronic, prolonged sitting as “the new smoking,” a deadly habit.

  Many American adults spend more than 12 hours per day sitting. How is that possible? Let’s take the example of a typical, unmarried office worker. He is seated at his computer desk or table for 80 percent of the time between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., plus he spends an additional 5 hours a day on his smartphone or watching TV/Netflix outside of work. This is a daily grand total 12 hours and 12 minutes of sitting. People who are homebound can easily spend 16 hours a day sitting. If you add 8 hours of sleeping on top of a whole day of sitting, you can see just how much time we now spend sedentary.
   The worst effect of sitting is that it leads to an overall degeneration of bodily tissues. “Sitting for too long causes your neuromuscular tissue (NMT), between your muscles and tendons, to decay. NMT is the second most ‘expensive’ tissue in the body to maintain after brain tissue. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it,” says Dr. Bomi Joseph, Director of the Peak Health Center in California.

Here are 4 tips to help reduce the inherent risks of a sedentary job or lifestyle:
1. Try to Stand at Least Once Per Hour
   To mitigate the effects of sitting all day, you really need to stand up at least once per hour. Getting up every 30 minutes is even better, according to a 2017 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Stretch a little and walk around for at least one minute before sitting down again.
2. Exercise in Short, Frequent Intervals
   If you are stuck sitting in an office all week, it can be tempting to try and cram your workouts into one long session during the weekend. But that isn’t as good for your body compared to several short, brisk walks or exercise sets throughout the day. You don’t have to do a full-on gym workout to get benefits, says Dr. Joseph. On breaks, you can walk around your workplace parking lot a few times or do some squats or jumping jacks in the hall.
3. Try Orthopedic Massage, Deep-Tissue Bodywork, Thai Massage, or Yoga
   Sitting for too long can encourage our back, neck, and limbs to settle into unnatural postures. This can have a negative “domino effect” that impacts the alignment and comfort of other body parts. Deep-tissue body work such as Orthopedic Massage Therapy, Rolfing Structural Integration or traditional Thai massage can help a stiff body regain its natural range of motion. Doing yoga is soothing, it improves neuromuscular tissue and posture, and it is accessible to almost anyone. Yoga mats are available in most department stores and hundreds of instructional yoga videos are free to watch on YouTube.
4. Use Technology to Remind You to Stand
   We all know the downsides of technology: distraction, addiction, and isolation. But new wellness technologies like the FitBit and Apple Watch have detailed movement and exercise tracking capabilities that can act as a motivating digital “coach” or mentor. The Apple Watch can track how much you sit and gently remind you to stand, move around, and exercise throughout the day. Set up your smartphone settings to limit screen time and block addictive websites. Use the “interval timer” app on your work computer to schedule regular standing breaks throughout the workday.
   
​The study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine looked at data from nearly 8,000 older adults to examine the relationship between sitting and mortality. It found that sitting for long periods means there is a 24 percent higher chance that someone will die from health problems, an 18 percent higher chance of heart disease, and a whopping 91 percent increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Sitting for too long can also have adverse effects on memory. The brain is packed full of blood vessels because it has an extremely high need for blood and oxygen. Sitting for too long encourages the heartbeat and circulation to slow to levels that are not nourishing enough for optimal brain function. Slow blood circulation can also cause swelling in the legs, varicose veins, or even deep vein thrombosis. Poor posture while sitting can also create pressure in the spine that eventually causes compressed spinal disks, which can lead to chronic back pain. And nobody wants that!
   
The bottom line is that sitting too long or too often is not good for you. Ride a bike instead of driving. Get off public transport one stop before your destination and walk the remainder.  Move, stretch, and get regular massage therapy. Your legs, your lungs, your back, your brain, and your entire body will appreciate it. Health is priceless and the rewards are well worth the effort.

​Resources

1. www.forbes.com/sites/davidsturt/2015/01/13/is-sitting-the-new-smoking/#603964a24fd4
2. www.countable.us/dr.bomi.joseph
3. https://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/2653704/patterns-sedentary-behavior-mortality-u-s-middle-aged-older-adults

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​     Orthopedic massage is a comprehensive system of hands on therapy used to treat the pain and injury associated with orthopedic conditions.  Orthopedic conditions refer to any of those that involve the locomotive structures of the body: skeleton, joints, muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage. It is commonly used to treat musculoskeletal problems like: SI joint dysfunction, Lumbago, Cervicalgia (Neck Pain), Whiplash, Torticollis (wry neck), Adhesive Capsulitis, Frozen Shoulder, Scoliosis, IT Band Syndrome, Sciatica, Thoracic Outlet, Morton’s Neuroma, Carpal Tunnel, Pec Minor entrapment etc. etc. 
      What sets this type of massage therapy apart from others and me from other therapists, is the therapeutic process used, the training involved, palpation ability and clinical reasoning skills.  When a client comes in we do an in depth intake consisting of a health history and assessment of the areas of their chief complaints including structural, functional hands on range of motion testing actively, passively and with resistance. The results gained determine whether massage is indicated or whether outside referral is necessary, the functional elements or mechanisms of injury, the types of tissue involved. We use all the information gathered during intake including MRI’s if pertinent and special orthopedic tests to determine which structures to treat and how to match the appropriate technique to the tissue type, joint restriction, or joint end feel encountered.  This increases the effectiveness of the treatment by ensuring that mobility is increased, structure is more balanced, and that strain of the involved tissues is either eliminated or reduced.
     For example you come in because you can’t raise your arm over your shoulder without pain. Next we assess that movement with you performing it. Next I perform it slowly. And finally I lightly resist the movement and we notice a diffuse pain at the coracoid process, indicating a tendinosis or strain of the pectoralis minor muscle. Raising your arm to the side is belabored at about 150-160 degrees and you can’t quite get it all the way to your head.  I then use an orthopedic test to assess your Supraspinatus muscle and with light resistance you also feel a pain behind the shoulder going down the back of the joint indicating a tendinosis in this tendon of the posterior rotator cuff. Next I passively raise your arm from your side and palpate and notice scapular movement before 90 degrees which indicates capsular adhesions. Actively rotating your shoulder away from the side with elbow fixed reveals a bone on bone end feel and lack of full range of motion. This indicates a capsular fibrosis within the joint.
This is a common scenario that is seen in PT, chiropractor’s, osteopathic, and trained massage therapy clinics on a fairly regular basis and responds well to an orthopedic approach after as little as one visit.          Yet without proper structural and functional assessment, an untrained therapist may try to “fix “ the painful area with “deep pressure”, move a joint  too quickly, or miss the nonverbal cues the injured client is modeling and further damage the already complicated shoulder problem .
So you see assessment is everything. Knowing what to do, how to do it, and when to do it is critical to the success of your treatment.  Before you leave we provide you with a couple movements to either stretch and or strengthen the affected areas to gently speed up your recovery.