Pain and Stress of Sitting All Day

Working as a Cube Dweller results in pain and stress from sitting all day. Beyond the pain and stress caused by sitting all day I found a great infographic on why Sitting Kills.

The infographic offers eight facts about why sitting kills, but I don’t buy it all! Let’s take a look at their eight facts:

1. We’re Sitting More Than Ever Before in History – 9.3 hours a day
2. Sitting Increases Risk of Death Up To 40% (despite exercise).
3. Sitting Makes Us Fat.
4. How Sitting Wrecks Your Body:
   • Electrical activity in the leg muscles shuts off
   • Calorie burning drops to 1 per minute
   • Enzymes that help break down fat drop 90%
   • Good cholesterol drops 20% (Cholesterol and You)
   • Insulin effectiveness drops 24% and risk of diabetes rises
   • Working at a sitting job doubles the rate of cardiovascular disease
5. Get Out of Your Chair Alive – interrupt sitting whenever you can. (My Enemy at Work, Workout at Work or Hit the Stairs
6. Get Off The Couch. Watching 3 hours or more TV per day are 64% more likely to die of heart disease. Exercise can’t combat the TV addiction.
7. Slouch – Sitting at 135 degrees puts less strain on your back than hunching forward or even sitting straight.
8. The Human Body simply isn’t build to sit for long periods of time.

I Don’t Buy It!

Point #7 – Slouch – Are you kidding me?

I’ve struggled with neck pain. I think it stems from a combination from the pain and stress of sitting and a history of playing hockey where I skated low and hit hard. Through the years I’ve learned that my posture while sitting is critical to avoiding pain and stress.

Sure slouching may put less strain on my “lower back”, it shifts the angle of my neck forward and down which causes more pain and stress. I for one and not going to do it.

Look at the neck in the image! No take another look. See how much forward the head is, as the weight is shifted forward more stress is placed on the muscles at the back of the head to keep it in place. That eight pound mellon takes a lot of work to keep in place when not balanced above the spine.

To keep the pain and stress out of my neck and avoid the migraines that I normally experience I need to watch my posture. The more upright I keep my neck, the less pain and stress I experience. It really is that simple.

But the rest of the Medical Billing and Coding Sitting Kills Infographic is great. It is another reminder that we need to Skip the elevator and take the stair whenever we can. Get moving.

Sitting Is Killing You Infographic

Here is the entire InfoGraphic:

Via: MedicalBillingandCoding.org

Do you buy it all? If you are subject to the pain and stress of sitting all day, which parts of the infographic to you buy or not?

About Troy Pesola

Troy is the founder of Cube.Dweller.Fitness. He's an innovation catalyst in several areas of life including business, marketing, and process improvement. Outside of work he's actively involved in fitness, health, and living vibrantly in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.