Out of Alignment: Everything That Happens To Your Body If You Sit All Day

On average, people spend around 8 hours a day sitting.
Sedentary behavior has become so commonplace, the medical community has created a term for it: “Sitting Disease.”
Sitting disease leads to pain from sitting too long and causes several health conditions that range in seriousness from discomfort to death.
Here is what happens to your body when you sit all day.

Stiff Neck and Shoulders

When you lead a sedentary lifestyle, especially one that involves sitting all day, you will develop a stiff neck and shoulders and neck pain.

This mostly happens due to sitting with the wrong posture, such as hunching over in your chair.

A stiff neck and shoulders can result in other complications, such as headaches and dizziness, that negatively affects your quality of life.

Tip: if you need pain management for your neck and shoulders, we can help.

Weak Legs and Glutes

Have you ever noticed that sitting all day leads to pain in your lower body?

That’s because when you are not using your muscles, they are slowly wasting away.

This is especially harmful to your legs and glutes because these muscles are designed to support and stabilize you when you are upright.

The weakening of your legs and glutes will eventually result in injury and strains from everyday activity.

Hips and Back Problems

Sitting all day throws your body out of alignment, especially your lower body.

Sitting for too long shortens your hip flexors, causing hip pain and decreasing your hip’s ability to support you.

Sitting all day also causes poor posture, which leads to back pain and spinal issues.

Untreated spinal issues causes compression in your spinal discs and premature degeneration.

Varicose Veins 

Varicose veins happen when blood collects in your veins and the pressure causes the veins to swell, bulge and twist.

The poor circulation in your legs from sitting too long often leads to varicose veins.

While varicose veins are not usually serious, the swelling and discomfort will affect your quality of life.

Sometimes, there are more serious complications with varicose veins, including a burst and bleeding vein, ulcers and blood clots.

Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)

DVT happens when a blood clot forms in the veins below the surface of your skin because of poor circulation from sitting too long.

Most of the time, DVT is not serious since the blood clot will simply dissolve.

Other times, a part of the blood clot will block a pulmonary artery in your lungs and cause a serious health issue, known as a pulmonary embolism, that may lead to death.

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a bone condition that happens when your bones lose density, become porous like a sponge and gradually weaken until they are at high risk for fracturing.

The loss of density is caused by our bone’s natural ability to renew itself by absorbing the old bone into the new bone.

As we age, our old bone reabsorbs faster than our bodies can create new bone, causing overall fragility.

Anything that speeds up this natural process results in a rapid weakening of the bones.

Sitting for too long and too often speeds up the process of bone remodeling, resulting in a higher risk of osteoporosis.

Weight Gain

People who sit all day are at a higher risk of being overweight or obese.

Studies have shown, obese people sit about 2 hours more each day than people who are at a healthy weight.

Everything you do, all the tiny movements that make up your day, contribute to the number of calories you burn daily.

Sitting greatly reduces that total calorie burn and since weight gain or weight loss is just calories in vs. calories out, reducing your calorie burn can increase your weight gain.

Diabetes

Did you know you can develop Type 2 diabetes just by sitting too long?

Sitting for long periods slows the metabolism, causes insulin resistance in the body and leads to an increased risk of developing diabetes.

This is because the muscles we use to stand and move around, not only burn fat and calories, they also break down and reduce sugars and fats in your bloodstream, which results in lowering your body’s insulin resistance.

By sitting down, you are causing this important process to stop, leading to the development of diabetes.

Heart Disease

Workers who sit for most of their shift are twice as likely to develop heart disease as workers who stand for most of their shift.

When you sit for too long, the blow flow to your heart slows down and deactivates an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase.

This enzyme is important because it breaks down fat in the blood vessels. When lipoprotein lipase is not active, the fatty acids build up in your blood vessels and increases the risk of heart disease.

Cancer

Studies show sitting, and a sedentary lifestyle in general, increase the risks of developing specific types of cancer by up to 66%.

Sedentary behavior was proven to:

• Increase the risk of developing colon cancer by 24%
• Increase the risk of developing endometrial cancer by 32%
• Increase the risk of developing lung cancer by 21%

One study also found sitting and watching TV increased the risk of developing colon cancer by 54% and endometrial cancer by a shocking 66%.

Preventing Sitting Disease

While sitting for too long can lead to some startling health conditions, you can prevent these problems by replacing 2 hours of sitting with movement.

This doesn’t mean you have to suddenly commit to a daily 2-hour workout, instead, try working movement into your day by stretching frequently and taking a movement break for every 60 minutes you are sitting down

Tip: you can also prevent body alignment problems by sitting with the correct posture. 

Final Thoughts On Pain From Sitting Too Long

Beyond the pain from sitting too long, being sedentary shortens our life span by causing several medical conditions and disorders.

The good news is, you can reduce your risks of these health issues by making a few lifestyle changes and working movement into your day.

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