Why Do Joints Get Sore?
You finish a long few days of desk-work and only have time for a quick dinner before rolling into bed ready for a new day tomorrow. As you rise and shine the next morning you notice that your low back feels a bit achey and your neck is tight. There’s a bit of tension behind your eyes that feels like it could be the start of a headache. You’ve not been doing anything particularly strenuous so why the discomfort?
The explanation lies in how our bodies have evolved over time. For hundreds of thousands of years our ancestors jumped, walked, crawled, climbed, ran, pushed and pulled as they navigated their natural environment. With these movements every joint in their body was used and challenged to some degree each day. Our joints evolved to need regular and varied movement to stay healthy. Without this, they begin to lose their natural elasticity, suppleness and freedom of movemement.
In the same way that a car engine can seize up if its not used enough, our joints can do the same. Our joints respond to stress by tightening. Stress is an indication of potential injury so to counteract this the body protects the joint by contracting the muscles. Your body outs the breaks on. We often think of joint stress as only coming from strenuous or repetitive actions like weightlifting or practicing the same tennis stroke over and over. But because joints require movement to stay healthy, underusing a joint also acts as a form of stress. There is a huge sweet spot between too little and too much. Unfortunately the modern lifestle generally involves far less movement than our body needs. The major culprit is sitting. It’s hard to believe but common use of chairs has only been around for about two-hundred years. The tradeoff of a comfortable, slouchy sofa is that lack of essential varied movement. Over time this can result in joint stiffness and pain.
So what can you do to prevent this? The most important remedy, backed by research, is to take regular movement breaks.
Ideally we want to be standing up and moving around for thirty seconds every thirty minutes. Any form of movement works. The longer we sit, the more our postural muscles, the ones that hold us upright and protect our spinal joints, begin to switch off. We creep deeper into that hunched posture which causes further stress to our neck, back, shoulders and hips. When we stand up and take a few steps, we move our joints and our postural muscles re-engage. In addition to standing, reaching our arms to the sides and stretching for the ceiling a few times is a perfect addition. Bringing our arms out further activates the postural muscles around our spine. It’s like hitting a refresh button for your posture.
Why can’t we just save up all the movement our body needs and do it in one go? Like going to the gym or having a yoga session after work? Undoubtedly this is better than not doing anything at all. However, research shows that people who practiced regular movement breaks had far less pain than those who didn’t take any breaks at all and instead hit the gym at the end of the day.
The takeaway here is that we can prevent the stiffness and soreness that builds up from prolonged siting by standing up and moving every thirty minutes. We never want to stay seated longer than an hour maximum whenever we have control over it, whether we’re working or relaxing. Coupling that with a few reaches for the sky and you’re beginning to chip away at the negative impacts of a sedentary posture.
Sometimes we can reach a point where we need outside help overcoming our pain conditions. This is where chiropractic can really shine. Chiropractors specialise in identifying where your body has been experiencing stress and how to relieve it. Chiropractors conduct a detailed examination to determine which joints have been most affected. This will show up as loss of normal motion, tenderness in the surrounding muscles, and neurological findings. Chiropractors use these tests to determine the best course of action to relieve your pain. A specific, controlled adjustment to the affected joint helps to release the tension and restore normal motion. Our chiropractors at One Chiropractic in Edinburgh also combine treatment with bespoke rehabilitation exercises to speed up your recovery and improve long-term outcomes. All this means you’re going to be on your way to a pain-free life and a return to all those activities you love doing.
So if you want to increase the chances of waking up with more spring in your step then taking a few minutes throughout your day to break out of that sitting posture is your greatest ally. Keep moving!
