The Sitting Epidemic: Digitalization Places Greater Emphasis on Proper Posture & Physical Movements
Remote work of all kinds — learning, designing, coding, writing, communicating, etc. — has required stationary sitting positions for extensive periods of time — day after day after day after day. With extended lockdowns and office/school closures, people have resorted to a virtual world, going hours at a time without even moving their lower limbs.
While digitalization has positively impacted society in many different ways — especially with expanding opportunities to more people all over the world by democratizing the playing field and by providing universal access to information — it has created mental and physical health challenges from digital workflows — primarily from long periods of focused attention often in a stationary sitting position to effectively perform any task.
Numerous studies have linked prolonged sitting to chronic internal health problems — including heart disease, diabetes, increased blood sugar, cancers — along with depression and other mental health problems. These issues have arisen from the stress placed on a few isolated regions in the body, resulting from the paralyzation of the lower limbs while sitting down next to a digital device.
With the back and neck flexing for long periods of time while sitting in front of a computer, common ailments like Herniated or Bulging Discs — soft, rubbery pads that shape the vertebrae in the back, serve as shock absorbers, and frame the spinal column — severely cripple both the vertebrae alignment as well as the nervous system — making it painful to sit, stand, or move at all.
Herniated discs commonly result in sciatica — a compression of the sciatic nerve, the largest nerve in the human body located in the lower spine — that prevents neural signaling from the brain down to the legs, which can make it extraordinarily difficult to move any part of the lower extremities, from walking to getting out of the chair.
According to Cornell University, many of these spinal issues have resulted from sitting, which places 90% more pressure on the spine than merely standing. Sitting all day will make the front of your body tighten up — especially muscles and joints such as the hip flexors, rectus femoris, pectoralis, upper traps, and anterior scalenes — creating musculoskeletal imbalances that can shut down core abdominal and glute muscles.
With inactive lower extremities, the upper body all the way to the head bear the brunt of the stressors. Forward Head Posture — resulting from the increased muscle tension around the neck area and the compression of the cervical vertebrae in the uppermost portion of the spine — can have last debilitating effects from compromised breathing to neck pain and musculoskeletal disorders.
To combat sitting, standing desks have grown rapidly in popularity during the digital age, with the recommended solution of mixing sitting and standing throughout the course of the day but in practice, the majority of workers tend to do their deep work in a stationary seated position. The root of the problem lies in the need to stay locked in to the digital screen in high stress situations for extended periods of time.
This hyperconnected world presents several significant challenges to maintain physical wellness; the evolution of human physiology does not adapt well to prolonged periods of physical inactivity, yet many jobs and tasks in the digital world often require constant connectedness for communication or work. The democratization of digital work has increased competition for everything, placing a greater need for staying connected to reality. As a result, LinkedIn posted an article of a staggering 33% rise in burnout signs in 2020, and this trend has shown no signs of slowing down.
Certainly, digitalization and an interconnected world offer so many benefits. However, a fine line exists between the value achieved digitally and the overall wellness and fitness level of the individual. The pandemic has accelerated that breaking point. What is that right amount of STATIONARY digital working time for optimal productivity/performance while maintaining physical and mental health/fitness?
