Lessons from Dr. Zachary LaVigne B.S., D.C.
We live in a world built for convenience. If you want dinner, groceries, or a ride, you just tap a screen and it shows up. It’s possible to spend an entire day, or even a week, barely moving your body. Maybe all you do is scroll, type, or sit. On paper, this seems like progress. But your body feels something very different. What’s really happening is a slow, quiet disaster.
The human body is incredibly efficient. If you stop using something like a muscle, a bone, a joint, or even good posture, your body simply shifts its resources somewhere else. It will always try to save energy. This helps in the short term, but the long-term effects can be severe.
A sedentary lifestyle does more than just make you sluggish or add a few pounds. Your joints stiffen, your bones lose strength, your muscles shrink, and your posture gets worse. Eventually, your whole movement pattern starts to change. Joints need movement to stay healthy. They are lined with cartilage and filled with synovial fluid. This fluid is only produced when you move. If you sit still, your joints dry out. Soon they feel stiff, creaky, and painful. It is a lot like a rusty hinge that has been left out in the rain.
Bones are alive, not just hard sticks holding you up. They are always breaking down and rebuilding themselves. But bones only rebuild when you challenge them. You need to lift, walk, jump, or put weight on them. If you don’t, your body decides strong bones are no longer needed. Bone density drops without you even noticing, until one day you are more fragile and prone to injury.
Your muscles also lose their memory for natural movement. Think of children squatting all the way to the ground to pick something up. Heels stay flat, backs are straight, and the movement looks easy. This is exactly how our bodies are built to move. Most adults have lost this ability. They wobble, fall over, or feel pain just trying it. The reason is simple: we stopped practicing. We swapped squatting for sitting, walking for driving, and climbing for convenience.
Here’s the bigger picture. Movement is how the body keeps itself healthy. The average American now sits for over ten hours each day. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors walked between ten and twenty miles every day. They weren’t exercising, they were just living life. Foraging, hunting, climbing, crouching, and carrying things kept them moving. Their bodies stayed strong and capable, even into old age.
The good news is you don’t have to give up your phone or live in the wilderness to get these benefits. Just make choices that get your body moving again. Take the stairs when you can. Carry your own groceries. Walk or bike short distances. Sit on the floor instead of the couch sometimes, and practice standing up without using your hands. If you drop something, squat to pick it up instead of bending at the waist. These little habits are more than chores. They keep your body resilient.
Convenience has convinced us that rest should be our baseline. But comfort is not neutral. It can make us weaker and less adaptable. Your body is waiting for a reason to stay strong. Give it one.