THEOr we have heard everyone that being too seated is bad. Someone compares to smoking the time spent working or lummering on chairs and sofas, because it shortens life and grows old before. A recent study (which appeared on Jama in 2024), who followed 480 thousand people in Taiwan for 13 years, concluded that the possibility of dying For Cardiovascular diseases would increase by 34 percent for employees at the desk compared to those who carry out less sedentary jobs.
Even people who train regularly could be at greater risk if they spend many hours sitting, according to theAmerican Heart Association. It takes 30 uninterrupted minutes on a chair to negatively influence the blood vessels. Anthropologists remember that we evolved by hunting and collecting berries and that if anything we should crouch, like the prehistory ancestors (according to a research published in 2020 on Pnas ). A kind of squat that stimulates the muscles much more than to rest the back.
The strange syndrome
Few know that spend many hours sitting Not only is it connected to backache But it has a curious and potentially debilitating long -term consequence: the “Dead butt syndrome”. It is called just like that, with this name that tears a smile: “Dead Butt Syndrome” or “Glutea amnesia”. It is much more than the sense of rigidity that you feel after spending half a day in front of the computer or driving, when the hip flexors and the lumbar area remain contracted. In the case of syndrome, the muscles of the buttocks seem to forget about their function, due to the inactivity, and end up with being slow, less responsive.
Exercises and suggestions to limit the damage of sedentary lifestyle (Getty Images)
On our B side there is a group of three muscles that stabilize the hip, lift the leg and rotate the thigh. Together they constitute the base for the spine and for posture. They make us stand up. The large buttock, in particular, is a sort of shock absorber, one of the strongest and largest muscles in the body. After half an hour that theher is accommodated, large, medium and small buttocks already weaken a little. And it is likely that a certain degree of amnesia of the rear region occurs if you are sitting for more than two or three hours. In that position, the Muscles of the Ventoschiena remain at rest and, long, the nervous stimulus that marks them to take action begins to arrive late. If the situation is repeated, you can run into the dead butt syndrome. The person who suffers from it does not always warn pain while sitting, but perhaps a minimal physical effort is enough, like one Walk in a quick paceto trigger problems in other muscles and joints, especially in the lower back and in the kneefrom tears to sciatica and to the infiammazioni.
Every 30 minutes a squat
“The solution is Set an alarm clock and get up every 30 minutespreferably by taping the buttocks to remind the brain that the muscles are there »he explained to New York Times Jane Konidis, a rehabilitation specialist at the Rochester Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
“THEIdeal is a march on the spot or do squats, making sure to tighten the buttocks to any repetition ». Here we come back: crouched like ancestors. Other experts suggest going up and down a ramp of stairsto mobilize the part and accelerate heart rate.
Cells age
Staying too seated makes you age faster. Researchers from the University of California discovered how the women over 65 who carried out less than 40 minutes of moderate physical activity per day and who remained sessions for over ten hours presented biologically older cells than eight years compared to the less sedentary peaks. Their telomers were shorter, the small terminal portions of DNA that protect the chromosomes from deterioration, like the plastic tips of the shoes laces, and which progressively shorten with age. A lot of energy is not burning on the chairs, of course.
The sedentary lifestyle can worsen the ability to adjust the sugar in the bloodleading to an increase in weight and the appearance of diabetes (it shows it a Meta-analysis of 2019 on Sports Medicine). In addition to metabolism, the lack of dynamism affects mood and cognitive abilities.
The mini-movimenti
All that remains is to get up often. An American doctor had invented the Desk on the treadmillsomeone else recommends working standing, but they are not roads that can be traveled for everyone. The key is to move every tot. If you can’t pull up, for example during a long journey by car or plane, you should at least change the position of the body, every 15-30 minutes, with mini-mowlings such as swing on the pelvis, change the location of the legs or shake the feet.
Easy exercise: stay with your arms stretched over your head, while you turn your back on the right and left. A 2020 study discovered that short repetitions for the arms (for example, two minutes every 20 minutes) lowered the blood sugar levels of people with disabilities forced into a wheelchair. The important thing is not to remain too still. “Sitting is more insidious than launching with the parachute“Commented a US doctor, James Levine, author of the book Get up!.
Goes to cholesterol
A new study proves that i Damage is also for young active adults (Published in September 2024 in the magazine Plos One). The deduction is that, to compensate the negative effects of the sessions to the bitter end, you should go beyond the standard 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activities and force exercises per week recommended by the World Health Organization.
US researchers examined the data of over a thousand men and women from Colorado with an average age of 33. The analysis concludes that spending eight or more hours a day sitting can increase the body mass index and blood cholesterol levels. The more you sit down, the more exercise you need. “We have created a lifestyle for ourselves that clashes with the way we should behave,” said Levine at the Los Angeles Times. «On the one hand, the good news is that The way out is incredibly easy: to move more. The bad news is that it is incredibly difficult, especially for a workforce focused on computers ». The progress of technology seems to have eliminated the need and the desire to move. A large slice of the western population passes life in front of the smartphone, the PC and television. What a pity, there is a whole world to enjoy. Standing.
The chair can become an ally
To counteract the weakening of the musculature of the buttocks, and not only, an exercise that also aims to improve posture and balance
An exercise to do in the chair to strengthen the musculature of the thighs and buttocks, preventing problems for the hips, back and knees. And tailored to Over 65. The physiatrist describes it Luigia Brugliera, head of the Specialized Motor Rehabilitation Unit of the San Raffaele hospital in Milanwhich specifies: “The instructions also explain how you get up and sit safely at a certain age”.
1. With the back resting a little forward in a robust chair, keep the knees bent and feet tight on the floor, at a distance equal to the breadth of the shoulders.
2. Place your hands on the chair on both sides, keeping your back and neck straight and lightly forward.
3. Slowly inspire. Bend forward and move the weight to the front of the feet.
4. Expire and get up slowly, using your hands as little as possible.
5. Take a break that lasts the time of a complete breath (inspiration and exhalation). 6. Sitting slowly inspiring (flexing your knees and pushing the buttocks back, keeping your gaze forward and not with your head down).
7. Do not let go of the chair, but check the descent movement as much as possible.
8. Expire. “The sequence must be repeated 10 – 15 times,” says Brugliera. “Then you rest for a minute and repeat a second time. In the initial phases of the year, better consider a lower number of raises and seats, with the aim of getting to do it completely and without the help of the hands “.
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