Inactivity Weakens Your Muscles and Causes Low Back Pain

According to a study published in New Scientist magazine, a sedentary lifestyle adversely affects the health of your spine. Nineteen men participated in a study that was designed to determine how inactivity affects your spine.  The men who participated in the study were confined to bed rest for an eight-week period.

          MRIs showed that after eight weeks of bed rest, the lack of movement caused spinal muscles to weaken and become inactive.

The men also reported low back muscles to weaken and become inactive. The men also reported low back pain equal to the pain of a physical injury. 

According to researchers, this was the first study that showed spinal muscles could be “switched off,” and researchers also found that getting the muscles back at optimal condition takes more that “getting up and moving around.”

          During a follow-up, six months after the study, some of the men reported that their back muscles had not fully recovered, despite exercise.  Previous cases have shown that people who usually suffer from low back pain are inactive.  The muscles are therefore weakened and can’t offer the necessary support to the spine.

          According to Robert Moor, of Australia’s Adelaide center for Spinal Research, “…bones and soft tissues need physical stress to maintain vitality.”    Researchers warn that sitting in front of a computer of television for hours at a time could also have the same effects on the spinal muscles.