Do the moments when you have to stand for a long time become endless? When this happens, the body has mechanisms to warn us that certain muscles are being overloaded and we should change position. This doesn’t usually happen to adults precisely because these cases tend to be occasional, but things get complicated when the muscles are damaged by constant habits during our day to day.

The time we spend sitting down, for example, is usually much more than the time we spend standing upright, and that is bad news for our health.

Sitting for many hours: a long-lasting poison

We spend much of our working hours sitting down, but in our free time or even during our domestic life this custom does not change. At lunch, dinner, watching TV… the same posture for different activities , the same weight being distributed over the same surface of our body and the same muscle groups maintaining the same tension.

Although it is not a harmful position if it is not maintained for long periods of time, we abuse it a lot and this has negative consequences for our body . Here are some examples of this.

1.The lower edge of the seat produces varicose veins

This part of the structure that supports you presses against the back of your thighs and cuts off blood circulation to a good part of your legs, especially in chairs with concave surfaces where the lower edge points upwards. Even if you don’t notice it, over the years this can encourage the appearance of those little marked veins.

2. Bad for the circulatory system

By spending a lot of time sitting down we encourage the appearance of high concentrations of fats in the blood, since these are not burned by the muscles. The blockage of blood vessels becomes a little more likely, and can increase blood pressure , which is harmful for the whole body but particularly for the brain, a very energy-demanding organ.

3. The body loses its elasticity

This is one of the easiest effects to check directly. People with sedentary habits who spend many hours sitting have a less flexible and more punished spine , and the same goes for the tendons and ligaments, especially in the legs, which are gathered in front of the seat. The range of movement becomes much narrower, and this lack of flexibility can lead to other problems, such as the risk of high injury to large muscle groups and the propensity to suffer from herniated discs.

Although there are ways to counteract this negative effect, such as yoga, the ideal is prevention rather than cure.

4. Loss of bone density in the legs

The bones are more or less strong, in part, because of the effort required of them. Some wrestlers spend a few minutes a week kicking a hard surface to strengthen their shins, and the same logic may work in reverse when we are on a seat: what you don’t use, you lose . Therefore, the risk of suffering from osteoporosis would also increase.

5. Encourages the appearance of the curved position

When sitting in front of a computer, the head tends to move forward to see the screen and keyboard. This produces a decompensation in the distribution of weight throughout our body in which the muscles of the shoulders do not come out very well, since they are shortened and are displaced forward . This fact alone is necessary to alter the centre of gravity of our body and produce a series of decompensations in posture.

6. Muscles weaken (especially the buttocks)

The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle of all those that populate the human body, and is also the most punished during the long periods spent in a sitting position . This reduces the concentration of muscle fibers in these areas, since they remain “asleep” due to inactivity, and as a consequence they lose their shape and part of their strength (which is serious considering the role of the buttocks in maintaining a proper posture while standing).

Something similar happens with other, smaller muscles: sitting down may not be expected to be very strong, but that does not mean that we do not need it in many other contexts. After having spent many hours a day on a chair over the last few months, these muscles n magically regain their potential when they leave the seat . They are still, so to speak, off guard, and therefore need to work at the same time to perform movements that should be done by only a few of them.

7. The brain undergoes structural changes

One study found that the sedentary rats suffered from far more vascular disorders than the rats in the control group. We explained this in detail in a previous article: “Sedentary lifestyle causes changes in the brain”.

What can we do to avoid all this?

The most obvious answer is that we should avoid spending so much time on a chair or sofa. However, assuming that the habit of remaining seated depends partly on our obligations and our work, certain recommendations can be followed to mitigate the harmful effects we have seen:

Sit with your trunk upright , if possible, and get up to walk a few minutes every half hour.

Practice various stretches every day , especially those involving hip flexors.

3. Use a backless seat or a fitball of appropriate size to sit on. This will partly prevent the weight from being badly distributed for a long time. The thighs should remain parallel to the floor and the knee should be bent at a 90-degree angle.

4. Remember to keep your head facing forward , without being too far forward. The ears should be in the line of the shoulders, and the shoulders should be backwards. If you have trouble seeing what’s on the screen, make it bigger or brighter (without burning your eyes!).

Finally, do exercises to strengthen the buttocks , such as squats (with or without weight) or frog jumps . Here’s a video that might help you: