As technology grows, our daily activities became smarter. However, we became the less mobile lead to other postural and physical stress on the body. This is a small article about our sedentary lifestyle.
Food habits now.
- Take away dinners instead of cooking at home.
- Instant making meals and junk foods at home too.
- Highly concentrated sugar and processed foods frequently.
- Laziness without much physical activity.
- Overfed but undernourished.
Our routine life purchase includes,
- Carbonated Drinks.
- Packed dried Foods & Meats.
- Chemicals ( as preservatives) added snacks.
- Ready to Cook Products.
Major life-threatening diseases:
Because of the sedentary lifestyle, junk food habits, etc, Few diseases became very common in our society.
- Heart diseases
The above all the diseases are known by even a common person nowadays. However, the unknown and underrated Silent killer is Sitting disease.
The Sitting Disease:
In Our modern lifestyle, science inventions and technology improvements are making our life easier. However, it directly proportioned to less physical mobility.
- About 50-70 % of people spend 6 or more hours sitting in a day.
- On Average 20-35%, Spend 4 or more hours a day watching TV.
This leads to major problems in our bodies. including,
1. Sustained & Poor posture.
2. Muscle Imbalances with immobilization/restriction of joints.
3. Joint immobilization.
1. Sustained poor posture:
Though, Slouching doesn’t always cause discomfort. The longer duration of this can place strain on muscles and soft tissues over the neck and upper back.
This strain may increase unnecessary tension in muscles. It can be avoided by a proper sitting position. Initially Sitting correctly may not feel comfortable, because our muscles have not been conditioned and trained ever before to support such a position. But we can train our body by postural awareness.
Hunching over your keyboard is usually a sign, that you have a tight chest and a weak upper back. Over time, this posture can make your back in round shape. This can cause shoulders and upper back stiffness.
The poking chin posture can be caused by sitting too low or too high in front of the computer screen and a hunched back, or a combination of all three.
2. Muscle Imbalance
If we position our muscles in a shortened/contracted position for a longer time. The muscles will become shorter literally. This will result in an imbalance in the musculoskeletal system of the body in order to maintain a straight or correct posture.
When Joints are immobile for a long time, the normal Range of motion will be decreased particularly ” END RANGE OF MOTION”.Every connective tissue (Ligaments, joint facets ) of our joints will be affected by immobilization. Scar tissue begins to be deposited immediately and further reduce mobility. This will lead to a higher chance of Osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and some irreversible joint changes.
Related : Do You feel Morning back pain
1. Posture awareness:
The correct posture must be always in our subconscious mind through training and awareness.
2. Joints mobilization activities:
Yes, we can avoid immobilization by doing adequate stretching and mobility of joints on a timely basis. In an extreme state of immobilization, we can not bring back the mobility completely.
- Full Range of motion exercises must be maintained throughout the healing process.
- The greater the restriction of joints, the more repetitions of a movement will be required.
TAKE AN ACTION & BREAK THE CYCLE
As the majority of the sedentary lifestyle activities are often unavoidable. whatsoever, there is always a possibility to break the sedentary lifestyle cycle and move towards a healthier life.
Few steps are mentioned below ,
- Set up a functioning work station, which does not give you an excuse to slouch.
- Walk around in Every 20 minutes or stand up and stretch.
- The ergonomically effective designed workstation must be maintained.
- Keeping postural awareness posters around each different type of workstations.
- Regular visits of a physical therapist and occupational therapist to workstations will be helpful. Thus the professionals can identify the exact ergonomic deviation in a workstation.
- If any problems in muscle and joints, an individual must consult orthopedics, further treatment must be carried by physical therapists.
We need to be aware of the direct relationship that exists with the silent killer. Many may feel fine until their lifestyle catches up with deformities or disease. A single step towards a healthier way can make us live a better day.