Is Sitting Really Killing Your Back?

Welcome to the 21st century, where the average hours of sitting per person seem to be on the rise. And with that, we increasingly discuss the role of all of those seated hours on our health.

We've all heard about how sitting is the new smoking, and it makes perfect sense. More sitting automatically means less exercise, which is a clear pathway toward an all manner of health concerns such as cardiac illness and obesity.

But what about the effects of sitting, specifically, on our back pain?

It should be of no surprise that an increase in the number of sitting hours is correlated closely with an increase in back pain.

With that being said, standing desks are the answer, right? Well, unfortunately, standing without the option to sit is also shown to relate to back pain.

What information online usually fails to show us is how other factors, such as frequency of breaks from the static working posture, come into play.

In fact, the larger increase in back pain is shown to occur in prolonged sitters who have fewer interruptions from their positions. Meanwhile, those who regularly moved from their chairs (whether it was for work away from the desk or a deliberate break) were shown to circumvent back pain much more easily.

We found one small study that looked closely at cycling between three different static working postures to show a significant decrease in overall discomfort.

All in all, it should be emphasized that the only bad posture is the one held for too long. Regular breaks from your working position, whether it's sitting or standing, will be the most effective piece of the puzzle to avoid discomfort.

It's time to quit worrying about how we sit and just take those quick moments throughout the day to interrupt the sitting.

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Learning To Move

It's the understanding that your therapist is going to be the expert in teaching you how to exercise.

But there's a step further that's vital when recovering from an injury.

After you learn how to exercise, you must learn how to move.

We wrote before on how exercises in the gym tend to not practically mimic our day-to-day movement habits.

It's one thing to know how to deadlift weight. But it's also necessary to learn how to drop form and allow the body to comfortably and naturally move outside of an exercise setting.

For instance, it's common at our clinic to have to teach even very fit and strong individuals how to comfortably round their spines.

The answer is, "No".

This hesitancy (and sometimes inability) for even healthy individuals to be unable to attain these textbook-IMperfect positions doesn't boil down to either a strength or a flexibility deficit. It's simply a trained response that we've taught our bodies.

Oftentimes, a conditioned fear of movement develops, whether it's appropriate or not. It's regardless of whether we teach it to ourselves or it's a doctor or fitness professional that instilled it; telling the brain that rounding the spine, lifting overhead, or jumping is going to be harmful enough times will result in your body having a poor reaction when those movements are attempted. And it doesn't matter if the raw strength or flexibility to perform those actions is present or not.

So while we therapists are the experts in how to exercise, the right one will also be the expert in how to move. It goes beyond strengthening and stretching muscles; it's about teaching the body how to be tolerant of movement beyond what we see in the weight room.

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Fighting The Pain

If it hurts, don’t do it.

Except do it a little.

That’s the working philosophy with rehab, and while it may seem to make sense to avoid painful movements completely when they bother us, there’s something at play that can make that a very counterproductive idea.

We’ve spoken on why too much resting when injured can complicate returning to activity. Movement restrictions develop, muscular strength is lost, the tissue might even heal inefficiently.

As well, we talk a lot about avoidance habits being created when in pain. If overhead movements with the shoulder hurt, for instance, it can become habitual to simply never reach for a top shelf for years to come, further deconditioning the joint for future use.

Now this becomes a problem because, as we avoid movement to protect an injury, we actually allow that injury to continue taking a little more away from us as time goes by.

You avoided overhead movements with your shoulder? Now simply up to shoulder height is starting to ache.

You don’t raise past your shoulders now? Now any sideways raise movement pinches.

Stopped moving your arm completely? Well, now your shoulder is meeting that demand.

It doesn’t need to happen like this, however. In a way, a fight back against the pain is often necessary. If the pain threatens to continue taking more movement away from you, then the clear solution is to push back and reclaim it.

We encourage clients to move and exercise through very mild and moderate levels of discomfort. Not because we simply need to “toughen up”, but because that allows us to work at a level that lets the body know where to accommodate and improve without causing a flare up.

This is the basic concept of how we improve physically, not just in active rehab, but in working and exercise in general. A safe level of stress on the body is required to initiate positive changes.

Be smart with an injury. Don’t push it, but maybe push it a bit.

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International Self-Care Day

Today, July 24, is International Self-Care Day. It's a day for raising awareness of programs and habits that can promote a healthy, happy lifestyle.

In regards to today, here are some tips for making sure that your body remains healthy, your pain stays controlled, and your energy is always positive.

Sleep

We all know that we need to get plenty of sleep. It's surprising, however,  how underrated and unacknowledged a good night's rest still remains, with a large number of Canadians still either under-sleeping or experiencing poor sleep quality.

In a world where we constantly seek therapeutic or nutritional fixes for illnesses, energy deficiencies, or mental performances, we need to remember the benefit of actually going to bed early (when permitted) and sleeping through the night.

Oh, and did you know that a lack of sleep can correlate to an increase in your persistent pain?

Destress

Speaking on pain again, let's recall that high stress and cortisol levels have a direct effect on how our nervous systems sense and tolerate pain. But again, we all know that high levels of stress are going to have negative effects on us, but deliberate methods of stress-relief are often left unsought-after.

When it comes to relieving stress, simply going home to put your feet up is not always sufficient enough. Whether it's exercise, meditation, or professional services to help unload mental distress and lighten your burden, those deliberate measures are often a necessity to allow you to live well.

Listen To Your Body

Very often, persistent pain conditions that last for years start as minor pains or discomforts that we don't give much thought to.

Whether it's something with a gradual onset, like a sore back, or something acute like a torn muscle, we want to make sure that we're treating ourselves right to properly recover from this minor occurrences before they become big. Otherwise, it's easy to become used to pain as it becomes greater, normalize it, create avoidance habits, and eventually have a significant problem on your hands.

So whether you've noticed your neck pain starting to spread, your fingers or hands gradually becoming more sore at work or just sprained and ankle, it's always best to jump on those situations sooner than later.

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Does Age Equal Pain?

"I'm just getting old."

You or someone that you may know may very well be using these words to justify their pain and discomfort. It's just the understanding in our society that as our bodies start to age, they will, inevitably, begin to hurt more.

Is this true, though? Does it have to be that way?

Stats Canada findings show that, indeed, increased age correlates closely with increases in chronic pain.

However, it is at a younger age, a broad range between 12-41, that persistent pain is found to onset in the most-significant rates. This suggests to us that older age isn't the cause of chronic pain, but rather habits that we do when we're younger.

Interestingly, some studies that track chronic pain in aging populations have often shown a steady increase in pain rates up to the age of around 60, followed by a mild but steady decrease thereafter. With that retirement age marking a downward trend in some cases, it seems like we could reasonably name workplace habits and stress as a primary pain trigger; not age itself.

Some jobs are more hazardous than others.

In summary, it's very easy to simply blame age on our pain, but it's our lifestyle factors that surround us as we age that are at greater work. With no one coming up with a way to reverse the aging process any time soon, we need to look at other places to intervene in people's discomfort.

The prime focus should be to focus on prevention during the career years in order to minimize the impact of poor habits and prevent pain onset in the first place. Failing that, what we can show is that the older age is a great time to reverse what those habits may have done over the years.

It's not hopeless. In fact, there's opportunity at every age to do something to make the body feel better.

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National Injury Prevention Day

This past Friday was National Injury Prevention Day!

We compiled a small collection of our past blog posts on the topic of preventing injury for your interest. We hope you enjoy and have a great, injury-free week!

Growth Spurts and Injury

Hey, parents! Do you remember how awkward puberty was? Do you also remember all of the drastic ways your bodies changed around that time?

The sudden increase in limb length and its effect on motor control can often create an increased risk of injury in teens; especially for those involved in sport? But that shouldn't be a fear-mongering fact, as there are things that can be done to subvert it!

Is There A Case Against Stretching?

One of our favourite past posts! We redid the research on static stretching and its use for preventing injury, and you may be surprised!

See Ya Later, Functional Training!

"Functional training" is a buzzword in fitness these days. Let's recall that "functional" should be referring to its applicability to our daily life and habits. Remember this next time you think that standing on a BOSU ball is going to prevent back pain at the construction site.

The Sixth Sense You Need For Injury Prevention

Have you ever been hiking and nearly rolled your ankle, only for your body to notice and catch it in time to jerk back and prevent the sprain?

You just utilized proprioception, your sixth sense referring to joint awareness that is absolutely vital for injury rehab AND prevention!

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Don't Give Up Before Beginning

Athletes will know this feeling very well, but non-athletes will understand the feeling too.

Imagine being on a hockey team. You show up to the game and roughly half of your teammates are absent due to injury or personal matters. The remaining players are feeling sore and low-energy. The team that you play against today is top in the league. You don't really see much chance of anything going well here.

As a result, everyone who showed up does their part, fulfills their role, and goes through the motions, but no one's heart is really in it. They may not be trying all that hard. Everyone is suspecting a loss. And that's what eventually happens. The heart wasn't there.

Now imagine that you are that team of hockey players and that your opponent is your pain. You've shown up at the rehab clinic for treatment, but the pain has been so great, so persistent, and been bothering you for so long that you don't see much possibility of success. But you're there anyway.

It's very common for individuals who are seeking treatment for pain to mentally defeat themselves before the appointment even begins. It's not for a lack of conscious effort; you may be desperate and and craving pain relief, but past success has now just subconsciously instilled an expectation of failure. And unfortunately, having those low expectations will often create a similar reality.

Now, I'm not saying that everyone should just chin up, suck it up, and try harder. As I always say, "Just do it," is probably the lamest advice that any shoe company could possibly put out.

The message that I want to relay instead is that you, as the client, should try to be open and transparent with your experiences when you see the next therapist. Explain your experience with pain and with past practitioners. Help your therapist understand your goals, your expectations, and your hesitations. It's our job to not only treat with our hands, but to help create as positive of an expected outcome in your mind as possible in order to propel your recovery forward. And through careful education and goal setting, trust us, it is possible.

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