7 reasons why you should avoid sitting all day

Do the moments when you have to stand for a long time seem endless? When this happens, the body has mechanisms to warn us that certain muscles are being overloaded and we should change position. This does not usually happen to adults precisely because these cases tend to be specific, but things get complicated when muscles are damaged by constant habits during our day to day.

The time we spend sitting, for example, is usually much more than the time we spend immobile in an upright position, and that is bad news for our health.

Sitting for long hours: a long-lasting poison

We spend most of our working hours sitting, but in our free time or even during our domestic life this habit does not change. When eating, dining, watching television... the same posture for different activities, the same weight being distributed over the same surface of our body and the same muscle groups maintaining the tension in the same way.

Although it is not a harmful position if it is not maintained for long periods of time, we abuse it a lot and that has

negative consequences for our body. Here are some samples of it.

1. The lower edge of the seat produces varicose veins

This part of the structure that holds you press the back of your thighs and it cuts off blood flow to a good portion of your legs, especially on concave-topped chairs where the bottom edge points up. Although you may not notice it, over the years this can favor the appearance of those marked veins.

2. It's bad for the circulatory system

By spending a long time sitting we favor the appearance of high concentrations of fat in the blood, since it is not burned by the muscles. Blockage of blood vessels becomes a little more likely, and can increase blood pressure, something that is harmful to the whole body but particularly to the brain, a very energy demanding organ.

3. The body loses its elasticity

This is one of the easiest effects to check directly. People with sedentary habits who spend many hours sitting they have a less flexible and more punished spine, and the same happens with the tendons and ligaments, especially of the legs, which are gathered in front of the seat. Range of motion becomes much narrower, and this lack of flexibility can lead to other problems, such as high risk of injury to large muscle groups and the propensity for hernias discs.

Although there are ways to counteract this negative effect, such as the yoga, the ideal is to prevent rather than cure.

4. Loss of bone density in the legs

The bones are more or less strong, in part, due to the effort that is required of them. Some fighters spend a few minutes a week kicking a hard surface to strengthen their shins, and the same logic could work in reverse when we are on a seat: what is not used is lost. Therefore, the risk of suffering from osteoporosis would also increase.

5. Promotes the appearance of the stooped position

When sitting at a computer, the head tends to move forward to see the screen and keyboard. This produces an imbalance in the distribution of weight throughout our body in which the shoulder muscles do not stand out very well, since they are shortened and get displaced forward. Only this fact is already necessary to alter the center of gravity of our body and produce a series of decompensations in posture.

6. Muscles weaken (especially the glutes)

The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle of all those that populate the human body, and It is also the most punished during the long periods spent in a sitting position. This reduces the concentration of muscle fibers in these areas, since they remain "asleep" due to inactivity, and as a consequence lose their shape and some of their strength (which is serious considering the role of the buttocks in maintaining proper posture while standing foot).

Something similar happens with other smaller muscles: sitting may not expect too much strength from them, but that does not mean that we do not need it in many other contexts. After spending many hours a day in a chair for the past few months, these muscles n **** o magically regain their potential when detached from the seat. They are still, so to speak, off guard, and therefore need to work at the same time to perform movements that should only be done by some of them.

7. The brain undergoes structural changes

A study found that sedentary rats suffered far more vascular disorders than rats in the control group. We explained it in detail in a previous article: "A sedentary lifestyle causes changes in the brain".

What to do to avoid all this?

The most obvious answer is that we must avoid spending so much time on a chair or sofa. However, assuming that the habit of sitting is partly dependent on our obligations and our work, certain recommendations can be followed to mitigate the detrimental effects that we have viewed:

1. Sit with the trunk vertical, if possible, and get up to walk for a few minutes every half hour.

2. Practice a variety of stretches every day, especially those that affect the hip flexors.

3. Using a seat without a back or a fitball just the right size to sit on. This will partly prevent the weight from being poorly distributed for a long time. The thighs must remain parallel to the ground and the knee must be bent at a 90 degree angle.

4. Remember to keep your head looking straight ahead, without being very displaced forward. The ears should be in the line of the shoulders, and these back. If you find it difficult to see what's on the screen, enlarge the size of what appears on it or increase the brightness somewhat (without burning your eyes!).

5. To finish, do exercises to strengthen the glutes, Like the squats (with or without weight) or frog jumps. Here is a video that can help you: