What does prolonged sitting posture do your child's body?

Prolonged sitting postures, will cause shortening of muscles. The shortening is the body's clever way of adapting to something we do little and often. It creates muscles tension to help us to that function with more ease. Hence sitting statically can become comfortable.... Until it doesn't?

Muscles will 'learn' by input, that a certain muscle tension is needed to help us to that more efficiently. As we do more frequently, like hours, and times per day, the muscles tension is then retained. Why?

Because it prepares the body for the next time you are doing this.

If a muscle reaches the point of retained tension, it doesn't switch off until we reprogram back to normal.

What is normal?

Normal is a muscle that creates tension for us to move, and releases tension for us to relax.

When a muscle starts to hold tension, it means that we did that thing often enough for tell our muscles to stay prepared.

This tension pulls on the skeleton creating postural changes.

If these stay long enough, specially in early stages as children's, it can cause permanent postural adaptations. The body is clever to do that, because it does what we ask it to do.

Scoliosis is a huge incididuos problems in society with children due to prolonged sitting postures that is not balanced creating uneven retained tension to muscles.

In the picture visual, raising the screen to eye, level allows the spine to have space for movements. When we curl down, into a C shape posture, the spine has no way to move but down!

I have seen this in clinical practice, and increase of postural changes in children as hound as 6, due to prolonged postures!

As they enter primary school, their sitting postures at a desk will increase, perpetuating this posture and causing problems in the future.

A sporty body, demands more muscle tension, and if muscles are tenses in the wrong direction, then performance can be affected.

Advice

Encourage breaks with stretches

Encourage to see even in both sitting bones

Raise the screen

Avoid leaning forward for writing

Breaks van be quick stretches, but most of all going out and playing.

Playing for children, like running, climbing, squatting are forms of stretches.

I know this generation isn't as active as we were, so encouragement to stretch might be an option.

Stretches together with them, stretch yourself in little and often breaks during the weekend, as a way to show them self care.

The stretches below are easy to perform together, and as with any behaviour changes for kids, we need to do it with them, until you catch them doing themselves. Children won't create behavioural changes on their own!

If you would like to go a step further in supporting your child’s physical development, I have created an online Safe Stretching Guidance program for parents of young footballers. In this program, I show you simple ways to recognise postural patterns, guide your child through safe stretches, and help their growing bodies stay balanced, mobile, and injury-resistant while they enjoy the sport they love. It is designed specifically for parents — no medical background needed — just practical guidance to help you support your child with confidence. If this is something that resonates with you, I would love to welcome you into the program.

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