The truth about sitting

Sitting and its harmful effects have been a hot topic in the last few years; sitting has even been called the new tobacco. The claim might seem like an overstatement, but when we look deeper into the marks sitting leaves into our body, we’ll understand it better.

Over 80% of people suffer from some degree of back pain during their life. You might have
sometimes noticed how sitting for a long time has made a pain in the lower back worse or increased aches in the shoulders and neck. These are very common problems that can be caused by sitting for long times. Maintaining an ergonomic posture while sitting takes a lot of work from our stabiliser muscles, so our body doesn’t sink forward into a slumped sitting position.

A Norwegian study from the year 2017, on the other hand, showed that the risk for getting type 2 diabetes is 17% higher for those who sit for more than 8 hours a day compared to those who sit for less...

Read how to control back problems with your training

As many as 60% of people experience pain in the lower back during their life, and one of the most common causes for the pain is spinal disc herniation. Commonly called slipped disc, these problems are currently very common, both for people who train and for those who don’t. The cause for back pain in everyday life as well as in training is usually the lack of strength and poor activation of the stabiliser muscles as well as lack of mobility in the body.
If our bodies have more strength than stability and mobility, the body won’t be able to withstand the resulting strain. This can be a result of sitting too much or hard training, focusing on too few areas.

You could think of stability and mobility as the basis of good health and fitness. When we have more reserves in these than there is strength in the body, we can train and move safely, knowing the body is capable of handling the...

A strong core and visible abs must be one of the most common goals for people who train. When we set this goal, we often focus on training the surface muscles or the straight abdominal muscle (Rectus abdominis), but that leaves many important areas without any attention. To be able to take on different sports and ways to exercise including gym, ball games, and group exercise classes without risking injury, we must also pay attention to the deep abdominal muscles underneath the surface muscles.

What is the core?

When people use the word core, they usually mean the muscles in the middle of the body including back and abdominal muscles. Anatomically thinking the core consists of different parts of the body including the abdomen, spine, pelvis, hips, and chest. The core takes part in every movement we make during the day, whether it is a daily task like lifting up a pen from the floor or squats with heavy weights at the gym. If the core muscles are not functioning properly, more...

Do you want more energy, to be in better shape and sleep better, without injuries or fear of overexertion? It’s possible, if we take into account certain things in our training.
Let’s look at these in more detail.

STABILITY AND MOBILITY

Stabilizer muscles and mobility form the basis of our fitness pyramid. When the lower part of the pyramid has more capacity than is required to maintain the body’s ability to perform, we stay healthy. If the pyramid is turned on its head, the body experiences additional stress and it causes different injuries and sprains.

Your body is only as strong as its weakest link. In order to be able to train with high intensity without breaking the body, the stabilizing muscles must be in good shape. If the support for our shoulder blades fails, the shoulders are elevated up toward the ears. At the same time the posture gets worse when the muscles that support the shoulder blades aren’t able to keep the shoulders in the right position....