If you’ve ever ended a workday feeling stiff, sore, or more tired than you should be, your chair might be the culprit. Whether you’re working from home, commuting, or binge-watching your favorite show, your health and wellness can be quickly impacted by prolonged sitting.
At our clinic, we often treat patients who deal with neck pain, back pain, tight hips, and even chronic health problems—all of which can be attributed to sitting too much.
So, let’s break down what happens to your body when your lifestyle involves prolonged sitting and what you can do to undo the damage.
How Prolonged Sitting Affects Your Body
Sitting for hours on end changes how your body functions in ways you might not expect. From pain and stiffness to life-changing health problems, these are some of the biggest issues that occur from prolonged sitting and inactivity.
- Spinal Misalignment — Poor posture puts pressure on your lower back and neck. Your spine is meant to move, not stay in a C-shape all day! When you spend long hours with rolled shoulders, a craned neck, and/or a bent spine, the muscles around these joints weaken and vertebrae become misaligned, leading to spinal cord compression and pain.
- Tight Hips and Weak Glutes — Prolonged sitting causes constant contraction of your hip flexors, and your glutes get lazy. Over time, this can lead to imbalances in muscle strength and joint flexibility, which in turn increase your risk of back or knee pain.
- Weakened Core — Like your glutes, core muscles don’t activate much while sitting, causing poor core strength and less support for your spine and organs, especially your lungs.
- Poor Circulation — Long sitting slows blood flow, especially to the legs. That’s why you might feel tingling, heaviness, or even swelling in your lower limbs. Over time, reduced circulation can even cause blood clots and other significant conditions.
- Obesity, Heart Disease, and Other Chronic Conditions — Prolonged sitting, especially without regular physical activity outside of the workday, can be a major contributing factor to obesity. Even without significant weight gain, a lack of physical activity increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and other severe conditions.
How To Fix It
Okay, so that all sounds pretty bad. But the good news is that these problems are completely preventable! Most of them are even reversible if caught early enough.
Stopping these issues from affecting your life doesn’t take a lot of effort either — just small, intentional changes throughout your day.
🕒 1. Move Every 30–60 Minutes
Set a timer or use a smartwatch reminder to get up, stretch, walk, or move around for a minute or two. For a good heart-rate boost, do a quick jog around your office, a 3-minute dance break, or some jumping jacks and push-ups every hour.
🧘 2. Stretch Daily
Focus on stretching your hip flexors, hamstrings, shoulders, and neck. Simple stretches and mobility exercises can have a massive impact on decreasing pain and improving flexibility and joint health.
🏋️ 3. Strengthen Core and Glutes
Incorporate exercises like bridges, planks, and bodyweight squats. These help offset the effects of weak muscles from sitting.
🪑 4. Improve Your Setup for Better Posture
Your monitor should be at eye level to prevent craning or bending your neck. Position your chair so that your feet are flat on the floor, and your hips, knees, and elbows are all at 90-degree angles.
🌿 5. Get Regular Chiropractic Care
Routine chiropractic adjustments can relieve tension, improve joint mobility, and reset your posture. We also help you rehabilitate painful and weakened joints through personalized exercises, medical care, and massage therapy.
Ready to End the Cycle of Prolonged Sitting?
If sitting is taking a toll on your body, you’re not alone. This is a major issue for people of all ages worldwide. Fortunately, you don’t have to deal with the pain or stiffness forever.
We’ll evaluate your posture, mobility, and muscle strength to create a plan that supports your lifestyle and gets you moving with less effort and discomfort.
Call us today to schedule a personalized assessment of your spinal health, posture, and mobility.
Your body was made to move—we’re here to help you do it better.
