Does sitting really reduce ROM?
If I had a dollar for something along the lines of... "lots of sitting every day gives you tight hip flexors and hamstrings/calves...".
I am skeptical of that claim. It's plausible, but seems taken for granted everywhere. Some muscles (eg adductors) seem to be in a constantly tight state. I've never heard "keeping your legs together gives you tight adductors".
I was wondering if there is any science based evidence showing sitting actually reduces flexibility of you hip flexors and hamstring/calves.
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Yes, sitting will eventually stiffen you up and reduce your ROM only IF you don't do mobility work. Stretching everyday and some yoga thrown into the mix will more than likely negate any negative impact sitting has.
Speaking from experience I work 9 hours a day in an office and if I go even 2-3 days with no stretching I will start to tighten up and my ROM will be severely reduced.
Short answer? Yes it does.
Chairs are designed to help us maintain an upright position, while taking the load off our legs. They aren't designed to sit on for 8 hours a day, every day. Once a human being starts doing this, bad things happen to the body.
A squatting position is a lot more natural, and sitting on a chair for hours can actually harm our spine, hips and make us less flexible.
Resources:
This video explains how the shape of our spine naturally let's us sit in a squatting position, and how the shape of our spine has shifted since by the usage of chairs, causing back pain and other injuries that countries which use chairs a lot less don't have, or in less quantity.
This article also talks about how the shape of our spine changed due to what they call the "american lifestyle".
Here is another article.
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