Don’t smoke, don’t drink or eat to excess — these are health mantras most of us are familiar with. And more recently there’s another one to add to this list: don’t sit for too long.
This advice reflects a growing understanding that sitting really is bad for our health — in fact, in 2014, Dr James Levine, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. coined the phrase ‘sitting is the new smoking’ to reflect the emerging evidence linking being sedentary with ill-health.
Some studies suggest people who spend six to eight hours sitting each day have a 20 per cent higher risk of premature death from any cause.
But why would sitting cause health problems? It’s thought to be because sitting for prolonged periods puts your body into ‘standby’ — your metabolism slows, circulation is constricted by folded joints and your ability to process sugar in the blood is compromised (inactive muscles don’t take up as much blood sugar as active muscles).
A study published in 2017 in the Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry found that good posture improved mood in people with mild-to-moderate depression
This leads to an increased risk of heart problems, obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Being sedentary for too long may also trigger mechanical problems, causing tightness and pain in the back, neck and shoulder muscles.
Meanwhile, how we sit can have an impact: excessive slouching in a chair — particularly after a meal — can put pressure on the abdomen leading to heartburn as stomach acid travels back up into the oesophagus.
Sitting posture could even affect your mood — a study published in 2017 in the Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry found that good posture improved mood in people with mild-to-moderate depression.
But as Sammy Margo, a London-based physiotherapist, explains, perhaps ‘the worst mistake’ you can make is to stay in the same position for long periods. Her advice is to set an alarm on your phone to ping every 30 minutes as a prompt to stand and move.
So what else can you do if you find yourself with no choice about spending protracted hours on your bottom? Here are the latest science-backed rules for minimising any harms.
You don’t have to sit bolt upright
Contrary to what you might have been told, the best seating posture is not to be ramrod straight with your shoulders pinned back. A 2021 study in the journal Musculoskeletal Science and Practice found no evidence to suggest that sitting bolt upright either prevents or eases back pain.
In this study, measurements were taken of 100 people sitting ‘normally’ and then sitting more upright, which was previously believed to be optimal. The researchers noted the upright position, in fact, artificially straightens the natural curves of the spine, potentially putting the body under a strain it would be less likely to experience in a more natural, relaxed seated position.
This study confirmed previous findings by the same researchers, published in the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy in 2019, which established that ‘correct’ posture may look different for different people.
‘There is not one ‘safe’ way to sit when it comes to back pain,’ confirms Dr Kieran O’Sullivan, a senior lecturer in physiotherapy at Limerick University.
‘If you feel OK, then don’t worry about sitting posture,’ he says, ‘and if you have pain, see if changing posture helps ease your pain — just don’t assume the solution is always sitting up straight.’
So a bit of mild slouching is acceptable as long as it doesn’t cause pain or discomfort.
Keep your feet off the sofa
At the end of a long day you might yearn to slump on the sofa with your legs tucked in or stretched out, but Sammy Margo warns these positions put pressure on the lower back — particularly as it is so tempting to stay in this position for hours at a time.
‘It’s not good to allow the back to slump into a curved C-shape for prolonged periods,’ she says — sitting comfortably is one thing, but slouching for too long can put pressure on the discs that cushion the vertebrae in the spine and force the neck and shoulders to work to keep the head from slumping forwards.
Over time, the sofa slouch may lead to weakening of the back and abdominal muscles which in turn may cause pain, says Sammy Margo. Instead, physiotherapists recommend sitting facing forwards to the TV with your feet flat on the floor.
‘If your sofa is deep, then stuff cushions into your lower back to keep yourself upright and maintain the natural curves of the spine — and if you want to put your feet up, use a footstool lower than the height of the sofa,’ says Sammy Margo.
Cross your ankles — not you knees
Research shows that crossing your legs rotates the pelvis and routinely sitting like this can trigger lower back pain because it stretches the gluteal muscles.
A study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in 2020 found that sitting with legs crossed also causes the trunk to become more slouched.
A 2018 study in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, found that crossed legs can reduce the speed at which blood moves through the blood vessels in the legs, which could increase the risk of blood clots.
Leg-crossing can also cause misalignment of the spine and shoulders, and ultimately back pain. If you do habitually cross your legs, Sammy Margo suggests frequently switching the leg you cross (‘it’s a great way to build movement into your sitting time’) or crossing the ankles instead — which doesn’t have the same negative impact on the spine or blood flow.
Choose the ‘carver chair’
If you find yourself working at the kitchen or dining room table, Sammy Margo suggests using a ‘carver chair’ with arms, so you can rest your elbows at 90 degrees to your body. ‘Most dining chairs don’t have arm rests, which means we raise our shoulders to rest our arms on the table, putting the muscles of the shoulders and back under strain,’ she says.
If your only option is a dining chair, use cushions to raise your seating position to the point where your arms can be at right angles when resting on the table — and, if necessary, put a thick book under your feet to help distribute your body weight evenly.
Lower your screen (if you can’t touch type)
One of the long-established rules of desk ergonomics is to position your computer screen at eye level to minimise strain on the neck.
However, Sammy Margo says this only applies to proficient touch-typists who can use the keyboard without letting their eyes leave the screen. Anyone who uses one or two fingers of each hand to type employs what physiotherapists call a ‘hunt and peck’ method, which requires frequent changes of eye level as you flick between checking the keyboard, the screen.
‘If you can’t touch type then position your screen slightly lower than eye level to minimise head movement as you look up and down,’ she recommends.
Ditch that bouncy Swiss ball
The fashion for sitting on a big Swiss bouncy ball to give your core muscles a work out and inject movement (however small) into your day, seems to have passed. A study by the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, in 2006 found that sitting on these ball ‘chairs’ increased discomfort because the muscles had to work too hard to stabilise the body.
Physiotherapists now recommend using an adjustable chair; knees should be bent at 90 degrees and lower than your hips, with your feet flat on the floor and your back fully supported.
Use an ironing board as a standing desk
The other option is to use an adjustable bar stool when working at the kitchen counter. Sammy Margo explains: ‘Using a bar stool means that your hips are higher than your knees, which helps to take the pressure off your lower back.’
‘But this is only useful if you work on a kitchen island unit with a gap which allows you to tuck your knees underneath.’
She adds that, depending on your height, a kitchen worktop can make the perfect standing desk (‘raise your laptop slightly on a thick chopping board if needed’), but the ironing board may be even better as ‘it’s a perfect standing desk as you can set the height to suit you’.
Source: Mail Online
