I Think I’m Allergic to Sitting

I think I’m allergic to sitting. I was going to write a blog about it…but that’s hard to do without sitting.

Because so many of us are sitting more than ever, I thought I would share transparently about what I’ve been going through and how I am healing it.

A few weeks ago, after a long day of sitting at the computer, I decided to stretch out my back. I hung on my TRX bands (straps with handles that are attached to the ceiling) to stretch out. The problem was that because one side of my body was tighter than the other, it ‘adjusted’ my pelvis in a way that made it worse. I woke up the next day in excruciating pain. Since then I have had a rough time.

One of the great ironies of my life is that now that I’m a health coach I sit more than ever. When my work was with horses, I spent my days moving bales of hay, carrying buckets of water, pushing heavy wheelbarrows, and the only sitting I ever did was on the back of a horse.

After 3 trips to my chiropractor (which helped, but didn’t completely fix it) I considered this might be due to something internal, like kidney or ovary. While I was contemplating next steps (like scheduling a pelvic exam or going to see my GP) I scheduled a massage.

The massage therapist felt like it was most likely my QL muscle (quadratus lumborum), which when tight, causes tremendous pain. This was good news because I should be able to fix this myself.

(At this point you may be wondering if I have considered getting a standing desk. The answer is yes. It may help in the future, but right now standing is almost as painful as sitting. Plus, there are some technical issues I will need to work out to make that work, like getting an external keyboard for my laptop, etc.)

Here’s what I’m doing:

1. I am retraining myself how to sit, how to sleep, and how to walk. I’m noticing all of the little ways I move that may have contributed to this problem, like sitting on my foot, cocking a hip, always getting into my chair from the same side, and not sitting perfectly straight… normal stuff, no? I now have to sleep flat on my back, instead of on my side with one knee pulled up as I like to. When I sit at a desk or a table, I have to sit perfectly straight, not at an angle, conscious of my posture, with my weight distributed evenly on my tuchus.

2. I go for 2 walks per day, strutting with an exaggerated stride, as per my massage therapist’s suggestion. (And I hope my neighbors don’t see me and get weird ideas.) I get up and move around as much as I sit. 30 minutes of sitting means 30 minutes of moving around.

3. Stretching. The QL is a small, deep muscle that is hard to isolate and stretch, so I googled it. Here are a few are really helping.

4. Icing it as needed. Maybe I’ll try some heat too.

5. Anti-inflammatories. I hate to take them, but sometimes they are the right medicine. In this case I think they will go a long way to break the cycle of inflammation.

Hindsight is 20/20. I wish I had done more when my body was whispering to me—because now it is screaming. I had weeks of low-grade tightness and mild discomfort as a warning…

But isn’t that always the way…? We ignore things until we can’t anymore—especially when it comes to health. We try to push through, tough it out, to “man up” and discount little signs that something is off until it becomes an unignorable issue. I know I do anyway. Even now when I should know better, I still sometimes get it wrong.

The good news: It’s fixable!