Back pain from spending too much time sitting? A physiotherapist’s tips to reduce and avoid them – Wellbeing

Whether working or being sedentary, it is common to spend a lot sitting time. However, this routine can have consequences for our body, especially back and/or neck pain. But why does it happen or how can it be avoided? We spoke with physiotherapist and osteopath Carla Correia (@carlacorreia_osteopata) who answered these and other questions.

When you spend a lot of time sitting, it’s common to have back and shoulder pain. Why does it happen?

Firstly, it is important to highlight that we are programmed for movement. It allows blood circulation to flow properly and muscles and joints to be nourished effectively. During movement, our breathing is wider, the ribs have a free path to expand and the organs are nourished, oxygenated and mobilized correctly.

Now, if we go from this ideal to sitting for many hours, we lose all this harmony and balance that the body needs. We will have poor blood circulation, more blocked breathing and fatigued postural muscles, creating the perfect cocktail for pain to appear in our back. The combination of this cocktail with the enemy of the century – the stress – explains why the neck and shoulders are also heavily affected. The upper part of the trunk is the one that suffers most from the lack of good emotional management/stress.

What is the best position to adopt when working sitting?

There is no ideal position. In my opinion, we should allow our body to move and oscillate between ergonomic and less ergonomic postures. There is no point in being in a straight position for an hour and then being completely tense and rigid. The myth persists that there is a correct position for sitting. In fact, it doesn’t exist, because we are not programmed to spend hours working sitting down.

My advice is to choose a more symmetrical position, in which you feel good, comfortable and with your shoulders relaxed. Avoid the computer being too far away, to reduce head projection, and whenever possible, work with a large monitor to reduce visual strain and neck tension. It is important to listen and respect what the body is asking for at the moment and vary the position.

And which ones should you avoid at all costs?

There is no correct answer, it all depends on how your body reacts to each position. The first tip is self-observation, learning to identify which postures your body doesn’t like and respecting that limit. In my opinion, we should mainly avoid the most asymmetrical postures for long periods of time and those that you know cause pain/discomfort. We can adopt them for a moment so that the body relaxes, but we should not maintain them for more than a few brief minutes. Postures such as sitting with your legs crossed, sitting on one foot or kneeling in a chair are some examples to avoid.

What exercises can we do to avoid this discomfort and pain?

Movement! I often say that movement is life. We must start looking at exercise routines with the same importance that we give to the need to eat.

We need to simplify and just start moving. Whether walking, running, cycling, stretching, Pilates, yoga, etc. Finding something you enjoy and starting to do it consistently is essential for both physical and mental well-being. If you are sedentary and commit to doing 15 minutes of movement every day, you will definitely feel differences from the first week (or even before).

Tricks to apply while working:

• Have a bottle of water and drink. This forces you to go to the bathroom more frequently and, therefore, get out of your chair and walk, which is excellent.
• Set an alarm clock to get up from your chair every hour. You don’t need more than two minutes every hour to get up, move, stretch and breathe to feel the benefits.

If the pain is persistent or increasing, what should you do?

Seek help from a physiotherapist and/or osteopath to assess and guide the situation. It is common for people to neglect pain and spend months with it. If they sought help as soon as the pain started, they would spend less time and money. Pain that has been present for more than three months is considered chronic, it is not just pain on the physical plane, but there is also central somatization, there is an habituation of the brain to that pain and probably also compensations from the body. So it takes much longer to treat a pain that lasts three months than one that lasts a week.

In addition to back and shoulder pain, what other consequences can there be from sitting for a long time?

In the long term, metabolic, hormonal and mental changes may occur. Prolonged inactivity also increases the predisposition to chronic pain and accelerates the degradation of the musculoskeletal system, which can include problems such as tendonitis, osteoarthritis and hernias.

The functioning of our entire body is compromised when blood does not flow properly. Without efficient circulation, there is no transport of sufficient nutrients, there is an accumulation of toxins in the body, resulting in deterioration of health at all levels. Studies show that after 30 minutes of sitting, circulation in the buttocks is compromised. Now think about the long-term damage of spending hours, days and years working in this position. It is urgent to take the need to move seriously.