Sitting causes your hip flexor muscles to shorten, which can lead to problems with your hip joints. Sitting for long periods can also cause problems with your back, especially if you consistently sit with poor posture or don't use an ergonomically designed chair or workstation.
"Hip pain from sitting can be from poor posture, but if you're sitting 40 to 50 hours week over 5, 6 months or longer, you probably have decreased strength in your hips. When you do get up from your desk, your glutes, core and hip extensors will be weaker, and you don't feel as strong."
Your muscles around your hips become very stiff when you sit for long periods and can restrict your joint range of motion. As explained above, this can lead to nutrient starved cartilage even if you stand up regularly.
Research has linked sitting for long periods of time with a number of health concerns. They include obesity and a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and unhealthy cholesterol levels — that make up metabolic syndrome.
But when experts analyze the handfuls of studies examining the effects of prolonged sitting, the data shows that sitting for more than eight hours a day can have a serious impact on a person's health.
To reverse the effects of too much sitting on our bodies, we need to increase our energy expenditure throughout the day by exercising and reducing the time of prolonged sitting.
Activities or positions that put pressure on the hip bursa, such as lying down, sitting in one position for a long time, or walking distances can irritate the bursa and cause more pain.
Avoid choosing low chairs or lounges/sofas. Tilt your seatbase forward just a little if possible, to bring the hips a little higher than your knees. Use a wedge cushion. Recline your seatback slightly.
While still sitting tall with a straight spine, slowly hinge at your hips and bend forward until you feel a gentle stretch in your right hip and glute muscle. To deepen the stretch, hinge further forward. Hold this stretch for 30 seconds to a minute, and then repeat on the other side.
Sitting upright in your chair, cross your right ankle over your left knee. Flex your right foot, and feel a stretch in your right glute and outer hip. If you don't feel a stretch, slowly hinge forward at your waist and lean into the right hip. Hold for 20-30 seconds, then switch sides.
It can be due to reduced blood flow, tight muscles and ligaments, fluid pooled in the body's lower extremities, or pins and needles sensations in the feet.
Many people experience hip pain while sitting. A variety of factors, including poor posture, improper seating, sitting for prolonged periods, or sitting in a way that puts pressure on the hips, may cause hip pain. Potential medical causes include autoimmune conditions and pinched nerves.
Resting, applying ice or heat to the affected area, stretching and strengthening exercises, using over-the-counter medications such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen, and wearing supportive shoes are all effective methods for relieving hip pain.
Walking is one of the best ways to relieve hip pain. But, if you find that despite a daily walk you are still experiencing it, there are other options available to you as well. If you've had a hip injury, ongoing physical therapy can help you immensely.
Sitting: Avoid crossing your legs. Instead try keeping your hips, knees and feet aligned. Your knees need to be lower than your hips; you can get a wedge cushion to help with this.
Symptoms of bursitis of the hip
Symptoms include joint pain and tenderness. You may also see swelling and feel warmth around the affected area. The pain is often sharp in the first few days. It may be dull and achy later.
Injections. A corticosteroid drug injected into the bursa can relieve pain and inflammation in your shoulder or hip. This treatment generally works quickly and, in many cases, one injection is all you need.
The strategy that worked best was five minutes of walking for every 30 minutes of sitting. This strategy also had a dramatic effect on how the volunteers' bodies responded to large meals, producing a 58% reduction in blood pressure spikes compared with sitting all day.
Remember to move for approximately three minutes every 30 – 60 minutes. Why? Research shows that staying stationary – whether sitting or standing – for long periods of time, can be bad for your health. Our bodies are built to move and doing so for approximately three minutes every hour helps us feel our best.
The amount of shortening added up to about eight years of aging, the scientists estimated—meaning that inactive women who spent more time sitting were about eight years older, on average, than those who were inactive but spent less time sedentary.
The average American sits 8 hours a day. That is quite a stretch of time when our bodies could benefit from movement, physical activity or even standing. This sedentary period of time, researchers have found, can increase our risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, cancer and even death.