by Tony Eggiman, PT, DPT

Do you work at a job that requires long hours of sitting? Maybe you have a desk job in an office, drive truck, travel often for work, or do field work in tractors? If so, stand up! The human anatomy is not built with the intention of sitting for long periods of time. Prolonged sitting can cause the muscles in front of your hips to tighten while weakening the muscles behind your hips. It can also put more stress on the discs between your low back vertebrae.

In order to reduce your risk of injury, try these simple tactics. Take standing breaks as often as possible. These rest periods do not need to be long. As little as 30 seconds of standing performed every 30 minutes can significantly reduce the strain of prolonged sitting. Another method of reducing this stress is to maintain a good sitting position.

Our spine has three normal curves. The top curve bends forward at the neck, another bends backward throughout the upper back and the final curve bends forward at the low back. These curves are important for distributing weight effectively throughout our spine. Any time these curves change, by either straightening or bending more, it puts more strain on the spinal joints. For this reason, it is important to maintain these curves while sitting. The easiest way to do this is to place your hips as far back as you can in the chair and utilize a slight lumbar support which will help prevent you from slouching. Although these tactics won’t completely alleviate the strain of prolonged sitting, they will help reduce your risk of injury.

For further questions call Orthopedic Sports and Physical Therapy at 1-218-641-7725.