Ouch, my butt! My back! My Legs! Help!

First off, I am sorry you hurt so!

And, you are young enough that you can probably correct at least some of this fairly easily. I get it that you have to sit a lot, but I believe you could probably find a half hour a day to give your body some relief from sitting, in order to make sitting more tolerable over time.

I strongly suggest you investigate learning some easy and simple yoga stretches, and that you begin walking daily. Ten or fifteen minutes of each, over a few weeks time, should begin to make a difference.

I speak from the experience of a lifetime (I am 64) of sometimes getting appropriate exercise, and sometimes not. The combo of yoga and walking is the best I have found to counteract my usually sedentary preferences. Saying that to differentiate my comments from anything resembling "medical advice."

Good luck!

If it is due to something else in your case, the doctor might have other advice, but usually... what you need is to move. A few things you could try:

Take regular breaks to walk and stretch. Doing large chunks of exercise is good for your overall health, but it won't do much to alleviate problems from sitting down.

Get in the habit of fidgeting while you sit down. Tap your feet, stretch out your legs. This one is especially useful in an office where you may not be allowed to stand and stretch.

Don't sit down when you don't have to. For example, you can stand and stretch while you watch television. You can run on the spot while the kettle boils. Save sitting down for when you absolutely have to sit down.

Have a variety of cushions and a footrest, so you can vary your sitting positions. I have one of those pregnancy cushions with a hole in the middle and a bunch of normal cushions. My footrest is a cheap plastic box. So you can get set up for not too much money.

I schedule writing with housework or gardening. I write for two hours with a break to pull weeds, hoe around (that is hoe with an E), sort laundry, make beds, walk to the Post Office (It is 106 degrees here and I still manage to walk a block or two. I also walk my daughter's dog when I am staying in Hollywood,Florida. Trust me, you are not going to melt--et by a gator maybe, but not melt.) IF the house is more urgent than the writing I schedule two hours house work and try to do one hour of "creation" writing--draft stuff that does not have to be exact grammatically.

If I am writing something new I can usually think out a scene or a dialog while doing a chore. If I am deep into proofs or a final draft, one hour of writing just won't do it, so I tend to spend three or four hours on writing in a chunk but when I do that the house and I both suffer.

Stress is also a factor in a long-write situation so I try to do something relaxing (relaxing means something in a different location that has nothing to do with desk work) even when it means pulling myself away. I really do like to pull weeds--Swear to God,so I will set the stove timer and pull for X number of minutes. Or I take the neighbor's dog on a walk (a pre-arranged deal. I don't just steal her but I can get her when I want to walk.) or I walk over to pet a couple of horses in a corral about a quarter mile down the road. Sometimes I grab my camera and snap some pictures but this can be too much of a draw and drain hours instead of minutes.

Don't look at this as a waste of time. The stress can freeze you or deliver a debilitating head ache as much as the sitting, so you should completely change directions once a day. I teach school from September to May so I am pretty crunched for time and I notice that when I "get serious" and forget the breaks I also lose time because of headaches or getting behind on things that needed attention--like paper grading, bill paying, grandkid playing.

Just finished up a novel and now I am surrounded by half finished house and garden projects. The next week will be hell but I will be moving. I am 63 years old and still manage to patter around on my own steam.--s6

Get or build a stand desk. Or, get a cheap treadmill and prop your lapttop on it.

Yeah, I know it sounds daunting, but really, walking can be done inside if the weather is bad. Simply making a circuit of the room(s) you are in works just fine. I have done this, a lot!

And the stretching, while it's good to get into a routine and daily practice and all that, can work just casually also. Stand up, take breaks, stretch in place. Do that every half hour for a while and see if it makes a difference.

I suspect it's the regularity of it that is going to help.

Hm. Also! Warm bath with salt and soda in the bathwater, soak for about 20 minutes. That can bring relief immediately.

DanielaTorre said:

How do you guys deal with the physical hazards of being sedentary all the time? I don't have time to hit the gym (not if I want to get any writing done anyway), so I could use some recommendations on dealing with the pain. I googled it, but I prefer to here advice directly from the mouths of those who suffer from this.

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Yoga has been a huge help in keeping me from turning into a hunched-over desk crab. It's also greatly improved my focus, strength and confidence.

I practice at home with just a yoga mat and a free podcast. 20 minutes, four times a week.

My legs ache if I don't move all day too, and I'm quite certain there's nothing wrong with me (other than the whole human slug thing). Walking at a good pace for half an hour really does cure it. And if I can manage it through a northeastern winter, you can probably suffer through Miami weather somehow. If the heat bothers you, do it at night. If it's raining, take an umbrella to keep it out of your eyes and enjoy the break from the heat.

Daniela,

If possible at work (like if no one's yelling at you to not leave your desk), set a little timer to go off (there are little programs you can get for your desktop or apps for your phone) every hour or so (or however often you need) to remind you to stretch while you're at work.

Can you rearrange the living room so you can put an exercise bike (if you keep an eye out you might be able to find something affordable on Craigslist) or something where you can see the TV? I sometimes bike while I play Skyrim... or I stretch during the screen loading times.

As someone said above, try standing at work or at home and see if that helps.

Get plenty of sleep and stay hydrated.

Being sedentary for long periods of time is now known to be a serious health concern. Apparently, even going to the gym and working out regularly won't undo the health problems associated with sitting for hours on end.

So I'd ditto JennOnTheIsland's suggestion to build a standing desk (even though I haven't done it myself yet.) If you do a search on Instructables, you can find cheap designs that people built from Ikea furniture, cinder blocks, etc. Someone I talked to who had switched to a standing desk said you will hate it with a searing crimson passion for a few days, dislike it for a few more, and then, after about a week, not even think about the fact that you're standing up to work anymore.

You'll also want a comfy mat to stand on, but hey, you need a new yoga mat anyway, right?

I'll also ditto those who have said that yoga helps a lot. A weekly class completely solved a hip pain issue I was having due to too much sitting.

And finally, I'll note that even if you've tweaked your workspace, it may not be tweaked enough. I'm six feet tall and have a coworker who is 5'3". She's on leave right now, and I'm using her desk, and it is totally provoking the old ouchy-hip thing again. There's nothing overtly uncomfortable about sitting at her desk, yet sitting there all day adds up to some serious pain for me. (Guess I need to enrol in yoga again...)

I stand at my school desk most of the day, rarely sit, especially when I have a class. Drives the kids nuts. I also climb stairs several times a day, even when not entirely necessary. I have watched too many of my contemporaries freeze up like the Tin Man--s6

DanielaTorre said:

How do you guys deal with the physical hazards of being sedentary all the time?

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By being active.

The modern sedentary lifestyle is very bad for the human animal.


ps - I don't go the gym because it's boring and awful. But I do plenty of other things, and only things that I really find fun. Find something - anything - you like and do that. Start small, keep trying new things.

I'll add another vote for yoga and walking, plus I'll throw in a plug for good nutrition. Perhaps the ache in your legs is caused by a nutritional lack as well as an exercise lack?

My company starting offering free yoga classes at the beginning of the year. I've taken advantage of them and am amazed at the progress I've made in just a few months. Doing yoga for an hour twice a week has greatly improved my strength and flexibility, not to mention my posture. It's a great stress reliever, too. No matter how frazzled I am when I go to class, I'm mellow when I leave. I've also got more energy in general.

On weekends I go walking. My neighborhood is hilly, so I can get a good workout. This is a great time to work out plot problems while also burning some calories and toning muscles. I always stick paper and pen into my pocket before heading out.

I think mainly you'll have to commit to some form of gentle exercise on a regular basis to see results. It doesn't have to be a grueling daily workout in a gym, but it should be more purposeful than just getting in extra steps during the day.

It's a blood flow thing but more than that it is a skeletal alignment thing. Which means everything connected to the skeleton is also affected. I had a chiropractor tell me once that sitting is basically bad for us no matter how we do it. According to him, the skeleton is just not designed for extended periods of sitting. Running, walking, standing, lying down, all good. Sitting, bad.

I'm going to address your aside comment first--please consider discussing the tingling/pain and vision issues with your doctor. It would be reassuring to find that it's nothing to be concerned with, but if it is, it would be good to start treatment as soon as you can. I have two friends currently battling MS. One got their diagnosis at an age a good 10-15 years younger than the other--at the very first signs of numbness, etc. Between medication, diet and exercise (Jillian Michaels DVD's), this friend is still able to operate at essentially the same degree as at the time of diagnosis (brain scans show no new lesions). The other friend was already experience a much greater degree of impairment. Now uses a cane full time, etc. The diagnosis took much longer and came much later so the damage already done was more extensive. This friend is also having success in not progressing into further degrees of impairment. That's good, but how much better would it have been if they'd discovered it 10 years sooner? I hope you won't let your fear of the disease keep you from seeking appropriate diagnosis/treatment.

Parental lecture aside, I developed hip issues at one particular job. I thought perhaps it was the onset of arthritis that has plagued much of my family (just my turn). After seeing a pattern of the pain going away over the weekend when I was off work and returning when I went back, I figured that it must be something about my work set-up. I noticed that the majority of the office chairs had that square of extra padding around the edges, rather than being essentially flat and curving downward where your legs hang down. When I switched to a flatter chair (one that didn't squish my hips inward), the pain/numbness went away.

It is hard to find chairs that don't have that extra padding. I don't know why they're designed that way, but I avoid them like the plague.

I agree with others that you might consider making a standing/walking desk. I'd bet you can find inexpensive treadmills on Craigslist. Then you could get some exercise (indoors, not a gym) and do your writing/gaming too.

How bad is it that my first thought when I saw the title of this thread was "Whoops...someone forgot their safeword"?

I hope your pain eases.

Daneilla,

I work a sedentary job. To get rid of the stiffness that comes with sitting in a perfectly fine chair at work and my office chair at home:

Three mornings a week I go to the gym and do upper/lower body weight training and walk three miles.

I run 2-3 times a week.

I walk the other 2-3 days when I'm not at the gym or out running.

In other words, I move every day.

I admit I am a bit obsessive about my exercise, but I think it's important to move every day if you can. It really does help cut down on the leg, butt, back soreness.

DanielaTorre said:

But what about my legs? My thighs feel weird and my knees ache like a bitch. I'm 28 years old and fairly thin, but I work in an office and then come home and write, and if I'm not writing,

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I use some of these tricks on long car trips, which amount to the same thing. Ever since I spent four years on molded fiberglas seats in college, I've had butt and leg problems while sitting for long periods.

Force yourself to get up and move around every 15 minutes. Use a timer. Even walking twice around your chair.

Support pantihose. (Yes, even if you're a guy. Who's looking?)

'Airplane exercises'. Tense the muscles of your legs in a specific order. Repeat until it's a habit. Use your thighs to briefly raise your butt off the chair.

Use a soft cushion or better, an electric massaging cushion.

Your chair may not be helping as much as you think. I finally sprang for a $300 executive's office chair with a high back and adjustable height. You can also get them from used office equipment stores.

Get a short stool and use the mouse on the short stool rather than up on the table. If your upper arm hangs straight down when you use the mouse, you've got it right. This is very important, even for your back and legs.

Take a baby aspirin every day to lessen the risk of deep vein thrombosis.

Take quinine tablets or drink tonic water (which contains quinine).

Legal Disclaimer: not a doctor or qualified professional. Everything I said here is a lie.

jennontheisland said:

Get or build a stand desk. Or, get a cheap treadmill and prop your lapttop on it.

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Stand desks are great! Pricey though. You may be able to find (or build for that matter) a lectern that would work. Doesn't have to be the whole time you write, just enough to provide positional variety.

Standing too long can produce widened veins. I vote against standing as a cure for sitting too long.

Walking doesn't have to be long - 15 min power walking is a minimum which can keep your juices flowing.

Sedentary lifestyle causes blood to stay in one place, tissues get less oxygen, start tingling and aching, necks and backs lose muscular support as muscles weaken, nerves and tendons start wondering around and getting stuck in places they don't belong, and people suddenly discover pain.

Simple exercises which serve me:

1. While sitting on desk - stand your feet on their toes. Hold. Stand then on their heels. Hold. Do for 2-3 minutes - this makes the calves and thighs get a minimum of tissue and blood movement

2. Flail your arms above your head like a psycho for a minute. Again - a minimum of blood and tissue movement. Do that often enough, and the veins on the back of your hands will not be always those of a sinister crone.

3. Strengthen your lower back: lie on back and lift butt in air by making 90% angle with knees. Hold. Do at least 5 times. Feel the muscle columns on both sides of spine strain. They are supposed to keep all disks in place. This helps them stay strong.

4. Slowly and carefully, while standing, legs apart shoulder wide, tilt your head left and right and back and forward for a minute - keep the neck flexible.

If you do all that every day, you will keep the chair's evil magic at bay. It's a question of developing a habit, like tooth brushing.

Also, why not pop broad spectrum vitamins and minerals ten days a month? Just in case? One never knows how much good stuff there really is in today's carrots and apples. An added boost from time to time, but only from time to time, makes a lot of sense.

Unmentioned possible bad habits:

- Foods: better not snack or drink sugary sodas or alcohol while writing, if you do - cut it out now, while you still can. If a behavior program is fully formed, and evens starts producing publishable stuff, you won't be able to meddle anymore and you'll be stuck with having to stuff yourself with sugars and transfats to keep your output alive.

- Smoking: if yes, cut down to 5 a day immediately. Easier than people think. Today's science says there's no difference between five cigarettes or five packs - in both cases you instantly fall to the floor a reeking, tentacle-flailing mess of corrupted DNA, bitterly sorry you didn't get a fashionable mood-stabilizing prescription instead. Maybe. But from the point of view of the respiratory and heart and circulation systems, the difference between even 5 and 10 cigarettes is astounding.

- Drugs: play safe and never daily. Speed is to be used thrice a lifetime when there's no other choice to make the deadline, not all the time, and certainly not for partying too.

Good luck