Sitting is Suicide

The Unexpected Physical Consequences of Modern Technology aka ‘sitting is suicide.’

Don’t get me wrong, technology is great! We live in an era where pretty much whatever we want to know/learn about is right at our finger tips. We have modern modes of travel that allow us to travel great distances in a short amount of time. We have machines that allow us access to vast amounts of information and entertainment like never before in human history.

Humans are designed to move.

We, as human beings, are designed to move.  We are designed to move at a low intensity, throughout our day.  As hunter gatherers, we survived on our feet.  We were nomadic people, traveling long distances, over long periods of time, gathering food and chasing the occasional wild game.

We continued to survive on our feet during the Agricultural revolution, tending crops and raising domesticated animals for food. Even into the Industrial Revolution, we continued to survive on our feet, as we stood in factory assembly lines and used our bodies to help forge this country into prosperity.

It wasn’t until the advent of modern conveniences like TV and automobiles, and later on the personal computer, that the idea of sitting for long periods of time became the norm, instead of the exception.

We now sit, on average, 9.3 hours a day. The average person, in this country, spends only 7.7 hours sleeping! We sit more than we sleep!

Bottom line, is that we weren’t designed to sit for long periods of time.  We were designed to move.  Movement is life.  Sitting is suicide.

The problem is that we have turned sitting into our mode of survival today.  Most of us have jobs that require long periods of sitting.  We sit in our vehicles, we sit at our desks at work, we sit for long periods of time while watching TV.  We sit…a lot.

But at what cost?

 -Sitting 6 or more hrs a day makes you 40% more likely to die within 15 yrs than someone who sits < 3 hours a day.

 -People with jobs that require them to sit have twice the rate of cardiovascular disease.

Another recent analysis of 18 studies found that those who sat for the longest periods of time were twice as likely to have diabetes or heart disease, compared to those who sat the least. According to lead researcher Thomas Yates, MD:

 “Even for people who are otherwise active, sitting for long stretches seems to be an independent risk factor for conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and kidney disease.”

 -80% of people in this country will experience chronic back pain in their lives.

So, what do we do about this?

Improve the quality of your life through MOVEMENT!  Movement is a required nutrient to express your optimal innate genetic intelligence.  There’s no pill or diet that can fill the gap from what your DNA requires and what your choices provide in terms of sufficient movement.

 “The modern lifestyle pattern of sitting too often, and moving too seldom put our body at a huge disadvantage. We are literally sending our most important muscles the repetitive message that they don’t matter, are not useful and should be left dormant… used primarily as a cushion for the rest of our weight.

As your postural pattern deteriorates, the muscles of your posterior chain can no longer resist being pulled forward into an unhealthy pattern. Our existing exercise prescription then places additional stress on this stressed system by further developing the front of the body at the cost and demise of the back of the body.

The majority of healthcare costs for physical pain can be chalked up to often self-induced structural imbalance, improper loading of tension, leading to back, hip, knee, shoulder, neck, ankle, wrist and foot pain. Tension headaches, TMJ syndrome, Carpal Tunnel syndrome, plantar fasciitis… These are all a part of the same puzzle and they all require the integration and strengthening of the ENTIRE POSTERIOR CHAIN OF MUSCLES to be properly addressed and fixed for the long term. You can always do more than you think you can, sometimes it is just a change of patterns.”  Dr. Eric Goodman, creator of Foundation Training.

What is Foundation Training?

Foundation Training is a series of exercises designed to bring us back to our natural postures and movement patterns.  The exercises teach you how to effectively use your body and build it up rather than the constant break down our modern lives create.

Including Foundation into your daily life will constantly increase your body’s awareness to moving improperly which can halt many of the degenerative processes causing chronic pain.

Foundation Training is literally the most natural way of moving the human body. If you have a human body, you are designed to do these movements. Awakening this innate potential through simple positions and movements, untapped power and strength become your new natural state. To me, Foundation Training = active posture.

It is undoing, or re-training your body to be tall and powerful in everyday life, as well as improving your performance in whatever athletic endeavor you choose to participate in!

Who should be doing Foundation Training?

Anybody that is experiencing any form of back pain, and/or anybody that wants to improve their performance in everything they do! Everybody can do some form of these exercises, young or old!

But, I already do Pilates/yoga/Crossfit/running/etc.

Foundation Training is NOT meant to REPLACE any other form of movement. Foundation Training is meant to enhance every other movement practice.  FT will make you better at Pilates and yoga and Crossfit, etc. These exercises are meant to be taught and then incorporated into your daily lives to improve your natural movement patterns. Foundation Training will become infused into your daily life and will allow you to move with grace and strength throughout your busy day.

Foundation Training was created by Dr. Eric Goodman DC, in an effort to free himself from debilitating lower back pain caused by years of abuse from sports, the demands of travel and the rigors of modern sedentary living.

If you would like to know more about Foundation Training, check out Wade Wilson of Colorado Springs, the guest contributor for this post at his website.  I encourage you to check out his story and his own personal health journey.  He can also be contacted directly at 940-600-7920.  Wade instructs Foundation Training all over the Southern Colorado region.