The “chair pain” causes small and big pains, from neck pain to back pain. To feel better, a few good rules of behavior are enough.
We evolved to stand, run, walk and not dangle from the chair to the sofa as we do more and more often. Curled up in uncomfortable chairs or slouched in an armchair, we spend hours and hours sitting every day: how sedentary lifestyle hurts us and above all how we should sit to minimize the consequences of an unnatural life from A man sitting?
Column pains. In practical terms, spending your days nailed to a chair means often finding yourself with back pain: oxygen reaches the muscles worse, which become tense, stiff and therefore painful, with discomfort that can affect the lumbar area or the entire upper part of the spine vertebral, sometimes radiating to the head, shoulders and arms.
«The two lordosis, lumbar and cervical, when seated are reversed because with the hips flexed the pelvis straightens while the head tends to move forward. The weight therefore unloads on these two curves, not surprisingly the most often sore points», adds Michele Romano, physiotherapist of Isico.
«The loss of the physiological curve, then, pushes the pulpy cores of the shock absorbing discs found between the vertebrae towards the back of the column, and over the years this can cause protrusions or herniated discs. To make matters worse, then, there is the now immoderate use of cell phones, which leads us to bend our heads forward even more: this weighs about four kilos, keeping it always flexed involves an increase in the load on the cervical spine. The new generations live with their eyes on their smartphones, we will see the consequences of all this in the future».
Is standing upright better? But not to become A suffering man, could the recipe be the one we hear repeated by mothers since childhood: “Shoulders out and head straight”? The new sensor system designed by Huawei could help us in this sense, which, applied to office chairs, warns if the posture is correct. Unfortunately, however, even this would not be the definitive solution.
Several studies seem to show that we consider upright posture ideal for reasons that have little to do with health. Kieran O’Sullivan, a back pain specialist at the University of Limerick (Ireland), has shown that we find sitting upright in a chair more elegant, attractive and appropriate.
An Australian study then explained that sitting upright like spindles is associated with a perception of health and strength, while those who hunch over are considered weak, sickly.
A survey conducted at the Aspetar Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Doha, Qatar, finally confirmed that if we are asked to sit properly we invariably lengthen the spine upwards.
The difference between men and women. Whether sitting upright is ideal is by no means certain: despite all the research done, there is no evidence that habitual sitting posture can lead to a fate of chronic pain. An example above all, the survey conducted by Karen Richards of Curtin University in Perth, Australia.
Following nearly 700 seventeen-year-olds for five years to evaluate whether sitting posture was connected with the onset of neck pain, it emerged that for boys the position is indifferent, while girls even risk finding themselves in pain if they sit upright. Perhaps it happens because in this position there is a low but constant activation of the muscles, on average less tonic in females who, therefore, save their neck if they sit less “composed”, lying down a little forward on the table.
Too still. As Romano observes, «the real problem is that we stay still for too long. Thus the weight is always unloaded on the same vertebrae and pain appears: we shouldn’t wait to feel discomfort to change position, but do it regardless and often enough. It doesn’t take much: every 20 minutes it would be enough to pass the weight from one buttock to the other, spread the legs, stretch one forward. Even the best ergonomic position hurts if it is fixed, but incorrect postures can be harmless if we keep them for a short time».
Tricks for moving. In short, we go back there, we need to move because we are made for this. So much so that, as Donzelli adds, «the best chair, paradoxically, is the most uncomfortable one, which forces you to change position: ergonomic ones or those with knee support can prove counterproductive, if they lead you to stay more still in a posture that is considered perfect. The problem with smart working, however, is precisely the greater fixity: in the office there are more requests and distractions that lead to movement, at home it is easier to spend hours stuck in front of the screen. To avoid it, you need to use all the tricks that come to mind, from alarm clocks to post-it notes attached to the screen, getting up as soon as possible and, for example, walking while on the phone».
Smart station. However, the rules for carving out a suitable space to work do exist: the monitor must not be too close and must be placed in front of the eyes so as not to force the neck to be bent, the keyboard supports can be useful and a chair of the right height is needed to allow you to rest your forearms well on the desk, thus unloading the weight of the arms and easing the tension on the shoulders.
An adjustable ergonomic chair that allows you to maintain the right distance from the table helps, but «a kitchen chair is also perfectly fine, just take more frequent breaks to change position or stretch your legs and perhaps use a lumbar support that helps maintain the curvature of the lower back», says Donzelli. «We need to adapt what we have by looking for the right relative height between the seat and the work surface, so that this is not too high or too low, avoiding, for example, choosing high stools that lead to “laying down” on the table».
False remedies. Among other things, not even the apparently ingenious countermeasures are so decisive: fitballs for example, large inflatable balls used to do exercises, make it impossible to remain still but using them as a seat all the time can become tiring, because they require you to constantly keep your balance .
The same goes for high desks, where you work while standing: standing for hours can cause back pain, if you don’t take breaks to change positions and rest. Better then a standard table, especially if you do some small “desk gymnastics” exercises. «Even the elastic bands to correct posture work for a short time because then you get used to it», continues Donzelli. “It is good be wary of easy fixeswhich indeed become deleterious if you think you don’t have to do anything else».
Watch out for the sofa. And sitting on the sofa, which is so comfortable, is it a little less insidious? «No, because it’s natural to abandon yourself and stay still for even longer. Furthermore, the sofa is lower than a normal chair: when you get up you are generally even more sore», replies Romano. In short, the goal is move often and don’t sit for too long: according to a very recent research by Columbia University in New York, the ideal would be to take a five-minute “walk break” every half hour because in this way parameters such as blood sugar and blood pressure also improve.
Also because immobility in more or less incorrect postures could change us much more than we would like: researchers who deal with back health suspect that assuming “crumpled” postures day after day can change the shape of the body permanently , hunching over well before the third or fourth age and with negative effects, for example, on walking speed, which slows down if the column bends forward much.
After all, the body responds to what we ask it to do, the bones are continually modeled in response to solicitations: are the very young, perpetually bent over their mobile phones, destined to look like the hunchback of Notre Dame before they even reach 40 years old?