Why is it that we’re drawn to things that are bad for us? Sugar, alcohol, smoking, sitting… If “sitting” seems to you to be a little out of line with the impact of the others, it’s time to think again.
Ever hear the phrase “sitting is the new smoking”? It’s credited to Dr James Levine (I love his book). Here are a few scary statistics taken from the NHS UK site:
A huge study involving almost 800,000 people – found that, compared with those who sat the least, people who sat the longest had a:
- 112% increase in risk of diabetes
- 147% increase in cardiovascular events
- 90% increase in death caused by cardiovascular events
- 49% increase in death from any cause
Our own humble research here at active X backs found that out of 100 consecutive lower back pain and/or sciatica sufferers, 76% of them had more pain after sitting for 20 minutes.
So, whether it’s killing you or not, there’s a 3 in 4 chance that sitting is aggravating your lower back pain. The way you sit definitely affects the alignment of your lower (and upper) back. It can massively increase the compressive load on your discs, and in many people it certainly over-stretches ligaments and muscles at the back of the spine. It doesn’t have to be this way.
In November we’re running an Indiegogo (crowdfunding) campaign to launch my new book and our new website. Both of these are designed to help you not only sit better, but to do everything better – as far as your back is concerned at least; sitting, standing, lying, exercising, everything back-related you can think of.
Please, please support the campaign. Ultimately, I’m still aiming to help a million people get a better back, and knowing how to sit well is a great start!
If you’d like to know more about the campaign, or to help in any way, please email me. Thanks.
