Stand for Strong Muscles
It’s no secret that sitting for long periods of time does a number of harmful things to your body. In this post, you’ll learn how sitting for long periods of time is creating short term and long term affects. My hope is to inspire you to make a positive change by standing more often, being mindful of your standing posture and to begin taking steps to build stronger muscles to stabilize your body.
More than half of us spend over six hours sitting down at work because sitting is required in our jobs. So what is all of this sitting doing to our bodies?
Weakened Thighs and Butt Muscles
When it comes to muscle tissue - if you don’t use them, you lose them. Sitting all day, creates less muscle load because you’re not depending on your powerful lower body muscles to hold you up. This leads to muscle atrophy, which is the wasting, thinning or weakening of these muscle tissues. Without strong legs and glute (butt) muscles to stabilize you, your body becomes at risk of injury.
Think about astronauts, when they go out to space in a no gravity environment. They come back to earth with lowered bone density and muscle atrophy. And we are seeing similar affects from prolonged sitting in everyday life.
Why is loss of muscle tissue so dangerous? Weak muscles also lose the response to the nerve impulses. And if no firing up of the muscles occurs; the muscles aren’t getting the nerve impulses to contract and relax. Additionally, weakening of the bodies stabilizers can lead to muscle imbalances, poor posture and chronic pain.
So what happens to your glutes when you sit?
Gluteal muscles help stabilize your hips and assist in movement when walking, running or climbing. When sitting in a chair your gluteal muscles don’t move or contract. Therefore, it’s entirely possible and probable that sitting at a desk for extended periods can cause gluteal muscle atrophy. The more weakened these muscles get, the more difficult it is to climb stairs or even get up from your chair.
Eventually the muscles around your glutes may have to take over, and this can end up creating imbalances in your muscles and stress on your joints. Some health experts warn that sitting for long periods of time also stresses the hip flexors. Sitting causes your hip flexors to shorten, and your seated position can hurt your back so ultimately your lumbar spine (lower back) ends up paying the price.
Also, poor posture while sitting can cause compression on the discs in your spine and can lead to premature degeneration, which results in chronic pain.
How fast can muscular atrophy occur? In one study, 10 healthy males volunteered to go on bed rest for 5 weeks. The researchers tested the strength and tone and function of the men’s lower body muscles before and after the bed rest. At the end of the study, the extensor muscles of the gluteus, thigh and calf were visibly atrophied and their bones showed bone density loss.
This study is similar to what happens when we sit for our daily commute, then all day at work, and come home to spend several more hours sitting in front of electronic devices (computer, smart phone and television). It seems that our lives are essentially on ‘bedrest’.
How to tell if your glutes are affected from prolonged sitting?
Look at your glutes in the mirror, subcutaneous fat gives your buttocks a sagging look. A saggy butt can be a sign that your glutes are not functioning properly. Other indicators include: tight low back muscles, weak hip flexors and lower abdominal muscles.
How to reverse or prevent muscle weakness? The good news is that muscles don’t have to stay inactive and atrophied for long. You can intervene in the process. Starting loaded activity and keeping it up regularly is the solution and it will restore the muscles to their original shape, functional ability and strength. Even if you have a job that requires you to sit all day, you HAVE TO find solutions for getting the muscle loading action. There are many free resources available online to help you find exercises to help strengthen your glute muscles, just search: Glute strengthening exercises.
Additionally standing whenever possible with optimal posture is important. Optimal posture saves energy so you don’t fatigue as easily and makes your joints feel great. In optimal posture, your muscles are perfectly balanced so you have less risk of injury. Optimal posture causes your body to create the optimal length for muscles to potentially develop maximal tension (and load).
When your glutes work optimally, you can run, kick a ball, bend down, extend your trunk, flex your hips, bring your legs together, stand up straight, and point your toes to engage your hamstrings. You do all these actions without stressing your lumbar spine and thus avoid low back pain.