‘Sitting Is The New Smoking &

How to Just Say No!’

- By Simon Griffin & Nancy Reagan

A Presentation on the Physiological Impacts of Sitting for Prolonged Periods of Time

24 Hours - 5 Days per week

11:00pm - 7:00am - Sleeping > 8 hours - Sleep

7:00am - 8:00am - Breakfast etc > 1 hour - Activity

8:00am - 9:00am - Commuting > 1 hour - Sitting

9:00am - 5:00pm - Work > 8 hours - Sitting

5:00pm - 6:00pm - Commuting > 1 hour - Sitting

6:00pm - 7:00pm - Rest/Dinner > 1 hour - Sitting

7:00pm - 8:00pm - Walk/Gym/Cycle/Yoga etc > 1 hour - Activity

8:00pm - 10:00 - Television/Reading/Relaxing > 2 hours - Sitting

10:00pm - 11:00pm - _____________ > 1 hour - Activity

We can see in the above diagram how the vast majority of a persons day can be spent sitting.

Sitting is considered a physiological stress as it is not a ‘natural bio-mechanical movement or non-movement’.

However, the body is resourceful and will adapt according to lines of physiological stress.

When we have repetitive movement or non-movements such as sitting, this adaptation causes muscles and other soft tissues to remodel to become stronger in the direction of stress.

This typically causes in an imbalance of strength to weakness in joints, resulting in loss of mobility commonly seen in the ankles, scapula, hips and spine.

This loss of mobility in these joints typically results in 1 of 3 issues:

Lower Back Pain
Knee Pain
Shoulder/Neck Pain

Solely treating the source of pain will only get you so far in eradicating your pain, and will likely be a temporary solution.

It’s of course more complicated to look at the body as a whole and see what other joints may be the root of the problem, but it’s also necessary for long-term pain allevaition and functionality.

We can see that these three common pain issues are in keeping with Mike Boyle & Gray Cook’s Joint by Joint Approach, which argues that wherever pain is located in the body, the answer to the problem is usually found in either the joint above or below the area of pain.

Joint–Primary Need

Gleno-humeral–Mobility
Scapula–Stability
Thoracic Spine–Mobility

Lumbar Spine–Stability

Hip–Mobility (multi-planar)

Knee–Stability

Ankle–Mobility (sagittal)

This means that the answer to:

Lower back pain is often found below the lumbar, in the hip, which is typically insufficiently mobile, thereby demanding the typically stable lumbar joint to develop mobility that is was not designed for.
Shoulder pain can usually be traced back to an insufficiently mobile thoracic spine, which in turn causes pain in the shoulders due to their need to forgo their stability in place of mobility.
Knee pain typically is a combination of a lack of both ankle mobility and stability, alongside hip immobility. The stress of an unstable and immobile ankle, coupled with an immobile hip causes the knees to lose their necessary bio-mechanical stability, thereby causing pain.

Each of these issues are becoming more common in the 21st century due to an over exposure to sitting and a reducing activity levels of the population.

So, what to do about it?

Heel Elevated Squats

Hip Mobility Drill

90/90 Hip Mobility Drill

Kettlebell Ankle Stability Swap

Ankle Stability Snap with Reverse Lunge

Single Leg - Double Kettlebell Deadlift

Cat/Cow

Kneeling T-Spine Rotation

Half Kneeling Banded T-Spine Rotation

Banded Lumbar Stretch

Banded Shoulder Dislocators

W- Raises

Hip Flossing

How is your head?

According to an article published in 2018 in the Irish Journal of Medical Science which examined the correlation between mental health and physical exercise, (involving 7539 participants), those who met the basic physical exercise levels routinely typically scored higher on the Energy and Vitality Index (EVI) and the Mental Health Index-5 (MHI-5), compared with those who did not met daily phsyical exercise standards.

This confirms what we already know:

Exercise benefits not only your physical health, but your mental wellbeing also.

For more information and resources like this, please consider joining the 360Movement Online Coaching Portal which includes:

Subscribe to Online Coaching below with one of the following options:

Online Coaching (Under 25's, Unemployed, Disabled)

€10.00

Every month

Online Coaching

€15.00

Every month

Personal Training & Online Coaching

€50.00

Every month

Monthly Programs
Monthly Nutritional Check-In
Joint Mobility & Stability Series
Email/WhatsApp Support
Blogs & Articles
Video Tutorials for All Exercises

Join Online Coaching

‘Sitting Is The New Smoking &

How to Just Say No!’

A Presentation on the Physiological Impacts of Sitting for Prolonged Periods of Time

24 Hours - 5 Days per week

We can see in the above diagram how the vast majority of a persons day can be spent sitting.

Sitting is considered a physiological stress as it is not a ‘natural bio-mechanical movement or non-movement’.

However, the body is resourceful and will adapt according to lines of physiological stress.

When we have repetitive movement or non-movements such as sitting, this adaptation causes muscles and other soft tissues to remodel to become stronger in the direction of stress.

This typically causes in an imbalance of strength to weakness in joints, resulting in loss of mobility commonly seen in the ankles, scapula, hips and spine.

This loss of mobility in these joints typically results in 1 of 3 issues:

Lower Back Pain

Knee Pain

Shoulder/Neck Pain

Solely treating the source of pain will only get you so far in eradicating your pain, and will likely be a temporary solution.

It’s of course more complicated to look at the body as a whole and see what other joints may be the root of the problem, but it’s also necessary for long-term pain allevaition and functionality.

We can see that these three common pain issues are in keeping with Mike Boyle & Gray Cook’s Joint by Joint Approach, which argues that wherever pain is located in the body, the answer to the problem is usually found in either the joint above or below the area of pain.

This means that the answer to:

Lower back pain is often found below the lumbar, in the hip, which is typically insufficiently mobile, thereby demanding the typically stable lumbar joint to develop mobility that is was not designed for.

Shoulder pain can usually be traced back to an insufficiently mobile thoracic spine, which in turn causes pain in the shoulders due to their need to forgo their stability in place of mobility.

Knee pain typically is a combination of a lack of both ankle mobility and stability, alongside hip immobility. The stress of an unstable and immobile ankle, coupled with an immobile hip causes the knees to lose their necessary bio-mechanical stability, thereby causing pain.

Each of these issues are becoming more common in the 21st century due to an over exposure to sitting and a reducing activity levels of the population.

So, what to do about it?

Heel Elevated Squats

Hip Mobility Drill

90/90 Hip Mobility Drill

Kettlebell Ankle Stability Swap

Ankle Stability Snap with Reverse Lunge

Single Leg - Double Kettlebell Deadlift

Cat/Cow

Kneeling T-Spine Rotation

Half Kneeling Banded T-Spine Rotation

Banded Lumbar Stretch

Banded Shoulder Dislocators

W- Raises

Hip Flossing

How is your head?

This confirms what we already know:

Exercise benefits not only your physical health, but your mental wellbeing also.

For more information and resources like this, please consider joining the 360Movement Online Coaching Portal which includes:

Subscribe to Online Coaching below with one of the following options:

Monthly Programs

Monthly Nutritional Check-In

Joint Mobility & Stability Series

Email/WhatsApp Support

Blogs & Articles

Video Tutorials for All Exercises

360Movement.ie