Take a stand against sitting!

The Restorative Exercise Institute is a facility dedicated to the paradigm that movement,  and specific types of movement at that, are required in order to achieve optimal well being.  We do not subscribe to the fitness paradigm, but rather instruct that aligned, whole-body movement done throughout the day provides the required circulatory benefits, neurological stimulation, and mechanical forces that keep tissues regenerating correctly.

If the Institute were a Super Hero, Sitting would be our arch nemesis.  Why?  Because sitting alters the muscle lengths in the legs so greatly, the lower half of the body no longer gives muscular support to the cardiovascular system.  The calves and hamstrings become so tight they cannot hold their share of blood, causing excess strain on the main arteries, increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease.  The Evil Henchman Sitting also places increased forces on the sacrum (especially if you sit with you tailbone tucked under) which pushes this free-floating bone deeper into your pelvis, putting slack on your pelvic floor muscles.

Why doesn’t one want slack pelvic floor muscles?  Let me count the ways.

• PF muscles are the “closers” of the urinary and fecal doors to the world.  I want proper tone in these muscles, and I hope you do too.
• PF muscles are the only support you have to the weight of the abdominal and pelvic organs.  If these are slack and weak, the organs have no choice but to go with the gravitational flow and drop downward.  Ladies, that means prolapsing organs.  Menfolk, that means your organs are now increasing pressure on the prostate.  Not fun for your prostate, I promise.
• PF muscles are 1/2 of the system that stabilizes your sacrum.  Slack PF muscles means that puppy is slopping around between your sacroiliac joints.  Low back pain, anyone?

I could go on (you know I can), but haven’t I given you enough information for one day?   No?  Then how about this news piece today.  “Experts warn of danger of sitting”.  The results from a 10+ year study on 17,000 Canadians showed that risk factors and actual death occurred more in those who sat often as compared to those who didn’t – regardless of if they participated in fitness exercise or not. Exercising, even one hour per day, was not enough to reverse the metabolic damage sitting had inflicted on study participants.

Again, I will state that replacing all day movement with intense bouts of exercise is an inappropriate prescription for health.  You have to eat a certain amount of kcals and nutrients too, but you wouldn’t eat an entire day’s worth of energy in one hour, or only eat three hours per week, would you?  Think of how that would mess up your energy regulation, fat storage, blood glucose, and pancreas activity!  Fitness activities can be fun and beneficial, but in the long run, studies do not support that fitness (monitored heart rates, heart rate percentages, weight training, and aerobics) increase longevity or quality of life as quantified by medications, surgeries, or daily pain.  Do you have to exercise?  No.  Do you need to move?  Yes!  All day long!  You need to walk and stand,  letting your leg muscles hold you up, increasing the strength of the blood vessles in the muscles, decreasing the pressure in the larger arteries, and signaling the bones to hold more minerals (bone density).

Don’t know where to start?  Stand up.  Right now.  Get out of your chair.  Spend $20 on plywood and make a box that holds your computer a foot off your desk so you can be part of the solution.  You up?  Good.  Now, leave a comment, turn off the computer, and go take a ten minute walk!

Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009 May;41(5):998-1005.  Sitting time and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.  Katzmarzyk PT, Church TS, Craig CL, Bouchard C.

Br J Sports Med 2009;43:81-83 Too much sitting: a novel and important predictor of chronic disease risk. N Owen, A Bauman,W Brown