Prolonged Sitting and Postural Strain
How can we break the cycle?
A recent study published in Applied Ergonomics has proven maybe one of the most obvious things to anyone who spends a lot of time working at a desk: prolonged sitting with slumped posture causes neck pain and muscle tension (1). With the past few years’ shifting trends back and forth between home office and in-person work, many of us have been made more aware of the ergonomic effects of prolonged sitting in less-than-ideal setups, and are encountering postural pain.
A seemingly obvious solution to avoid the pain associated with prolonged seated posture is to simply move around enough throughout your workday. However, without specific recommendations and strategies to combat the effects of prolonged sitting, this can be difficult to tackle, and the results can be elusive.
While our top recommendation is always a personalized evaluation and program tailored to you from your physical therapist, here are three additional research-backed approaches, any of which might begin to rescue your routine from the dreaded daily slump:
1. Sit-to-stand setup
Standing desks saw a surge in popularity in the mid-late 2010’s, and while this setup is not available (or appealing) to everyone, consistent shifting between seated and standing positions throughout the day has been proven to reduce postural pain (2). While it can take as few as 15 minutes at a seated work task to provoke postural strain and pain(1), switching back and forth from minutes at a seated work task to provoke postural strain and pain(1), switching back and forth from seated to standing work every 30-60 minutes can still have a significant effect on discomfort (2, 3).
2. Frequent short walkaround breaks – “exercise snacks”
A research team at Columbia University recently determined that a 5-minute walking break every 30 minutes was the optimal time frame to combat the discomfort, poor mood, and detrimental effects on cardiovascular markers associated with prolonged sitting (4). The simplicity of this exercise ‘snack’ strategy could make it the most repeatable and effective, depending on your scheduling demands. However, half-hourly walk breaks are a very specific recommendation: researchers did not see the same benefits with longer intervals between exercise snacks.
3. Neck and shoulder stability exercises
For those of us who enjoy consistent daily movement challenges, an experimental trial in 2016 proved a set of five stabilization exercises targeting shoulder blade control can significantly improve both pain and postural alignment (5). While the sample size was small, the positive effect on muscle activation, postural alignment, and pain were all highly significant in the group assigned to the simple three-times-weekly exercise series for four weeks. If you would like to try your own scapular stabilization program, Centurion has compiled one for you on our YouTube channel entitled Foundations of Scapular Stability, linked HERE,* with exercises that closely overlap with the program outlined in the study cited above.
*If you are experiencing acute neck or shoulder pain or have a recent injury, speak with your PT before starting a new exercise program of any kind.