The most popular article that The Wall Street Journal’s Magazine has ever published is entitled “Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?”. This really caught our attention, because life is too short to - well - shorten it further.
Among other nasty side effects, uninterrupted sitting for hours a day is responsible for the following:
1. Weakened back - If you’re leaning back in your chair, the muscles that are normally engaged to support your spine will disengage. This leads them to weaken from disuse. 
Leaning forward a bit while sitting to work at a computer or anything else on your desk? You may find yourself tempted to slouch forward. Slouching provides a kind of pseudo-support while sitting that, while tempting, should be avoided. This kind of slouching cuts off the normal, healthy flow of blood into and out of the soft disks between our vertebrae. Collagen then tends to harden around the ligaments in this unnatural position.
2. Neck strain - The vertebrae at the top of your spinal column - the tiny ones that support your skull - are called your cervical vertebrae. When you lean forward while sitting, they’re stacked into an unnatural curvature. This curvature puts strain on the surrounding muscles and ligaments, extending all the way down into the shoulders and back, that can result in pain.
3. Leg damage - The moment you sit down, the electrical activity in your legs shuts off and blood circulation slows. This stagnancy can lead to varicose veins (no!) and eventual deep vein thrombosis - blood clots.
Walking and running puts pressure on your bones that keeps them strong. A lack of this pressure can lead to the softening of bones - osteoporosis.
How can you mitigate the damage if quitting your job isn’t an option? Check out these tips for little tricks to employ throughout the day.
This is where the spa comes in quite nicely. We’ve developed a massage enhancement just for sitters called the Dot Com. It gives pointed attention to neck, shoulders, hands and arms and includes specialty stretches. Schedule yours today!
