Can You Increase Your Life Expectancy?

Doing this one thing a day can increase your life expectancy!

Do you spend several hours a day sitting, in a car, at a desk?

We work hard and often our jobs and lifestyles force us sitting for long periods of time. Studies have shown that sitting is the new smoking. When we sit, our psoas muscle and iliopsoas are shortened and often remain tight in the shortened position even when at rest. One easy to diagnose symptom of this muscle not being relaxed and fully elongated is lower back pain. When your psoas muscle is shortened for hours on end, this can cause compression of the spine. The compression of the spine will affect us much more seriously than just the symptoms lower back pain, tightened hamstrings and bilateral knee discomfort. The long term affects that it has on your health and longevity are that the spinal compression will cut off the communication of your nervous system to your organs, such as diaphragm (respiratory issues), stomach and intestines (digestion issues, IBS and Crohns disease etc), and the list goes on since we are talking about the spine, which is our nerve center and even affect how we walk (see this blog about plantar fasciitis).

It is extremely important to keep these muscles relaxed and to stretch on a regular basis to counter the sitting posture. Here is a link for you for your daily care, remember, stretching will not relax the muscle but it will help to work and elongate it to get more oxygen and nutrients through the fibers. Sometimes, it's a little too late to be stretching and it can cause the dehydrated muscles, ligaments, and tendons to tear. Sometimes it is best to compress the muscles, as in Camel Pose , Bow Pose, this will stretch the psoas but compress the fascia and muscles in the lower spine.  To compress the psoas, which is also helpful click this link. See a professional that specializes in therapeutic treatments for the psoas to allow you to get the most efficient release on a regular basis for optimal health. (The photo above from Lifehacker is a great model to see how this can happen)

For additional information, questions, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at 240-903-0980, email us, or follow us on our social media.

In Health and Wellness,

Michelle S Krause LMT, CST-T

National and MD State Licensed

Owner of Vital Fitness Holistic Center

www.vitalfitnessholisticcenter.com

National Board of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork Ethics and Standards Committee

Former President of the Severna Park/Baltimore Holistic Chamber of Commerce and AMTA of Maryland New Member Committee Chair and Board Member