10 min/day can save your back

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it. Just like the Hunchback of Notre-Dame, I have a hunch this won't end well," Groucho Marx.

A healthy lifestyle isn't just about eating well, it's also about how we move and use our bodies. In 2004, people in the US spent about 7.7 hours, or 55% of their day, sitting down. That's a lot of sitting!

I had a back problem for other reasons (flat feet and a bad bite, which as it turned out were the cause of my bad back, plus heavy sports loads that almost gave me fatalities, but I'll write about that separately). In the process of restoring the functions of my spine over the past 5 years, I learned a lot about good posture and want to share this useful information.

It might help you avoid health issues or fix ones you already have.

We all know that sitting too much is bad for us. You might think, "I should move more." But why? And is it enough to start moving if you've been sitting a lot for years? Let's look deeper into this.

What does sitting too much do to your body? It's important to understand the causes and effects:

• You might not realize how sitting affects you

• Studies show that people often don't know how much time they actually spend sitting

• You might only see extreme solutions that you're not ready for, so you end up doing nothing

Sitting too much can lead to these problems:

• hamstrings (muscles in the back of your thighs) might get shorter

• hip flexor muscles might shorten

• iliopsoas muscles and muscles in the front of your thighs might shorten too

• You might lose strength in your stomach muscles

Research shows this can make your pelvis tilt forward and your spine curve too much. This is called increased lordosis.

What problems can too much spinal curve cause?

• Spinal stress: It can put extra pressure on your lower back, causing wear and tear or even injuries.

• Nerve compression: It might squeeze your nerves, causing pain, tingling, or weakness in your legs.

• Muscle imbalance and pain: It can make your back muscles uneven, putting a lot of strain on your lower back and causing ongoing pain. Your stomach muscles might also get weaker, making the problem worse.

• Changed body mechanics: It could change how you walk or stand, increasing your risk of falling or getting hurt, especially for older people.

• Impact on organ function: It might even affect how your internal organs work, changing digestion or breathing.

• Appearance concerns: It can make you feel bad about how you look.

According to this data, our goal was to kill our back. But even that wasn't enough, and in the last decade, we've added gadgets.

A study found that 66% of students spend more than 6 hours per day on gadgets. The excessive use has led to physical health issues like vision problems (68.18%), sleep problems (52.27%), and neck and shoulder pain (71.97%). 

Your upper back and neck might need help if:

• your neck feels sore and stiff

• you feel a buzzing in the occipital area

• you feel any discomfort or tightness between your shoulder blades

• your shoulders hunched forward

• you don't like how your posture looks from the side

So, here are the main reasons for posture problems:

• sitting at a desk for too long

• driving for long periods

• using a smartphone a lot with their head tilted down

Let's look at how the upper spine works: 

Prolonged neck tilting provokes a loss of tone in the neck extensors and spasms at their attachment points to the spine (so-called trigger points). This makes your head tilt forward. The brain's task is to raise our eyes to the horizon level so this foolish body doesn't destroy itself. The brain commands the muscles at the back of the skull base to contract to lift the head. But this is not their primary function, so over time they spasm. This can squeeze an artery near your spine that brings blood to your brain, causing headaches and neck pain.

Also, the neck muscles are connected to the muscles between your shoulder blades (rhomboid muscles) When these muscles stop working well, your chest muscles pull your shoulders forward, its main function is shoulder adduction.

This creates a curve in your upper spine, making your neck stick out and giving you rounded shoulders. This makes the problems in your lower back even worse.

You might think about making big changes, like stopping using your smartphone or quitting your office job. But before you do anything drastic, let's see what science suggests.

So, what's the solution?

Just moving more won't fix the shortened muscles. Scientific research has shown that stretching is effective. Even if you sit a lot or use a smartphone, regularly doing stretches and exercises to strengthen your muscles can help solve the problem. Just 5-10 minutes a day of the right stretches can make a big difference.

Effective helpers are trigger point massage and kinesio taping method.

But before you start stretching and exercising, talk to a professional to make sure you're choosing safe exercises for you.

Each mindful small step today will become a giant leap for your well-being tomorrow.

Warm regards,
Kos