Sitting too much contributes a lot to back pain, especially if your body posture is faulty, says experts. Meanwhile, a new study has found a possible remedy for this, revealing that standing up from your seat can reduce back pain.
According to this Australian study, alternately sitting and standing every 30 minutes can lessen the tension on the back. In fact, doing this for a whole week can already cause less fatigue and less back pain, as well as reduced lower leg pain.
Such pain is common among office workers, and the researchers advise employees working in sedentary office jobs to practice the habit of sitting and standing.
According to postdoctoral research fellow Alicia A. Thorp, their study's results confirm what they have expected, that regular breaks throughout the workday can result to improvements in musculoskeletal symptoms and fatigue. Thorp is with the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia and is the lead researcher of the study.
Past studies have found that office employees spend up to 75% of their work day seated. Thorp and colleagues confirm that such lifestyle can lead to all kinds of health problems, and that although many employees are aware of the consequences of this, they do not seem to have much choice. After all, this is their work environment.
Throp's study investigated not only the effects of standing breaks to joint and muscle pain, but also to workers' level of productivity.
Seventeen men and six women were assigned randomly to one of two groups, and were asked to use an electric adjustable-height workstation. One group simply stayed seated much of the 8-hour workday, while the other group alternately sat and stood up every 30 minutes or so. This was done for 5 days, then the groups switched for another week.
Results revealed that employees in the sit-stand group had 32% fewer musculoskeletal symptoms and a lower fatigue score that the sitting group. Better productivity and less impatience were also reported among the sit-stand group.
