Dr. Stephen Courtney - Why Sitting Is the New Smoking--Tips If You Sit At Your Desk All Day
Channel: Dr. Stephen Courtney
Date: 26/10/2017

www.CourtneyMD.com
Dr. Stephen Courtney is a Board Certified Orthopedic Spine Surgeon treating neck and back disorders. His clinic is located in Plano, Texas.

Sitting in our job marketplace is almost like the new smoking. Sitting, you get static, the blood flow doesn’t go like it should be going to your muscles, in your neck, in your back. You get all tensed up on the computer. All that tension, all that tightness typically goes to the scapula, the upper part of your neck. That’s where stress goes, that’s where the muscles get real tight at. That tech neck, it’s a real issue in the United States. Usually it’s just from being static so long and being so tense, where the muscle get real tight. Those usually are trap muscles. So if you’re going to sit at your desk all day, it’d be nice if you had like a 5 pound weight or 10 pound weight where you could do some overhead dumb bells to move the muscles or some light biceps or also triceps curls or shoulder shrugs just to loosen up the muscles throughout the day.

I think it’d be good if you could do that or get one of your desks that you can move up and down. They have them now at several places. You can get them now, you to know make that desk. But the main thing is overhead activity, just even shoulder shrugs or even jumping jacks without doing the jumping, just motion over the head with your arms and shoulder can help definitely loosen up the muscles. 


It doesn’t cause a permanent damage but the sitting puts a lot of pressure on the lower back just like it does the neck, especially in the lower back. So when the person sits, biomechanically, it puts about 30% more pressure and strain on the lower back. When you have a patient with a real hot disk herniation, they are very very rarely sitting, they’re standing up, they  rarely sit down.