How Sitting All Day Is Sabotaging Your Health

This video is brought to you by Ergon Office, a premium sit-stand desk brand whose mission is to optimize the well-being of office workers. So if you're looking to take care of your body better at work, then click on the link in the description. I spend a lot of time at my desk. I typically describe myself as an active person, but as YouTube has gotten busier, I find myself at my computer more and more and more. On days when I'm editing, I can easily work 8-12 hours parked in my chair, and on top of that, there's all the other times I'm sitting down to. And I'm not alone. More people in the western world have desk jobs now than ever before. In the US, it's estimated that physically active jobs only make up 20% of the workforce compared to 50% in 1960. That combined with the activity changes in our day-to-day lives means that as society, we sit way more than we used to. So I went to meet Scott, an RMT, to find out how all this sitting is affecting our bodies. I mean, I don't really know where to start. I mean, it's affecting your circulation, digestion, your biomechanics that are going through your upper body, your lower body. You're gonna get like some nerve impingements and things like that, numbness, tingling, burning in any of the digits, the extremities. Back pain is certainly something that I see in clinic all the time. And there's a couple different reasons from that, right? So when you're sitting, your largest muscle is being turned off. That's your glutes, like your whole glute group. That muscle is supposed to be supporting you and keeping you upright when you go to walk. So this muscle is supposed to be firing all day, is now shut off for 40 hours a week, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, right? So it's not functioning as strong as it should, right? So when you go to stand up and you go to walk, now something else has to take on that load to keep you upright, and that's going to be your low back muscles, right? They're not meant to take that load. They tend to fatigue, and then you get back pain. And people don't tend to realize, but rarely is that the problem. It's not the problem of something happening in the back. It's the front structures that are putting excess strain on the back muscles. Not only will sitting 40 hours a week turn your muscles off in the short term, but over a longer time frame, they can also lead to muscle atrophy. Trying to re-engage those muscle groups in an activity like sports or weight training when they are shut off for so much of your life puts yourself at a greater risk for injury. Your body is constantly realigning, right? Along the lines of stress, you have these little cells in your body called fibroblasts. What they're doing is spitting out different fibers to reinforce whatever posture you're most often. So if you're in this posture more often, your body's going to say, like, okay, you're in that posture. I'm going to keep you in that posture. Another thing, the pecs. Pecs internally rotate and they collapse, right? Pecs are what's called a postural muscle, and what they do is they want to hold tension, right? So they want to get shortened. And what opposes them are called the rhomboids, and rhomboids are aphasic muscles, so they tend to lengthen. So this power imbalance has the shoulder kind of rolling forward already, but then when we're sitting at our desk, we're already collapsed and rolling forward. And then you go to stand up or do anything that you want to do, some sport, because you want to get in shape. So you want to go, you hit the bench, right? You know, you'll start, and then you start feeling this pinch in your shoulder. That's probably because your shoulder is now internally rotated and protracted, and you go to roll up, and suddenly that part of the bone is not clearing the space that it needs to clear, and then you end up pinching all these structures in here. Rushing into physical activity after sitting for long periods may do more harm than good, but at the same time, back pain and muscle stiffness will only increase more if you stay inactive after leaving the office. In a recent paper published in NCBI, the authors recommended light to moderate aerobic activity as a means of combating lower back pain. This can include full body exercises like rowing or swimming to re-engage your relaxed muscles as a warm-up. Additionally, you want core stabilizing and muscle strengthening exercises to combat the areas of the body that might be inactive throughout your day. Specifically, engaging your lumbar extender muscles has been found to be particularly effective at fighting and preventing back pain. And finally, there's the importance of taking time at the end of your day to do some form of mobility work, to relax your muscles and extend your spine before you go to sleep. But outside of physical exercises, what are some things we can do during the workday to make sure we're taking care of our posture? The biggest thing you can do is take regular breaks. Get up. I encourage people to drink more water. Generally, people don't drink enough water as is. Drinking lots of water is going to be good for everything, right? It encourages movement and hydration of the tissues and things like that. So what happens when you drink a glass of water every 20 minutes? You're going to have to pee. That's another excuse to get up. Wow. So that's kind of like an added bonus. So get up, drink lots of water, and it will force you to move around. While getting up to take breaks will definitely help, I was curious if there was anything I could do while sitting at my desk to take better care of my body. With back pain, it's better if you're able to have like a higher stool that kind of tilts down a little bit. That's actually quite good for the back and the posture in the low back. Making sure that all of your joints are basically at 90 degrees, right? So making sure that your surface, whatever you're using, your keyboard and your mouse is not way out here and you're reaching, you bring it back. Make sure that your monitor is not low and you have to crane your head down and tilt your head forward, right? So put it up on a couple phone books if those still exist. Yeah. But yeah, pop it up and then you keep it at eye level. All that stuff, those little things amount to big changes if we keep reinforcing that posture all the time. Recently, I've made the switch from my poorly structured desk setup here in my apartment to a new sit-stand desk from Ergon Office, who have been kind enough to actually sponsor today's video. I'm currently using the Sway Desk, which is honestly incredible. This desk is made with the best inline motors on the market, so this thing can transition from standing to sitting and it is such a satisfying experience. They also use the highest quality local wood species sourced in North America, so it looks incredible. This desk has drastically changed the way I work in that I'm able to alternate sitting and standing regularly throughout my long days of editing with just the ease of pushing a button. The desk also has the option to save two different height profiles, so you can go from perfectly seated to comfortably standing with just a double click. Ergon Office blends amazing materials and design with a focus on productivity and health, and they make one of the coolest desks I've ever seen. I know this desk is going to be a huge tool for me years down the road, and I know my back is going to be thanking me for it. So, if you're interested in checking out Ergon Office, then you can click on the link in the description. Thanks guys for watching, and I hope you learned a few things to take better care of your backs and your posture. Also, we just posted the full interview with Scott on our Patreon, so link is in the description if you want to check that out. And that's it for me in this video, and I'll catch you in the next one. Cheers!