Book by Reno doctor provides simple strategies to get moving

Thumbing through a magazine on a 12-hour flight to Denmark, Dr. Parley Anderson of Reno read an article about the negative effects of sitting. Not long after that, he would attend a conference that also addressed what people in a modern society deal with if they actually sit still for long periods.

“I ran into this twice,” he said of the coincidence. “I did some research, and found we’re doing tons of sitting and it’s really doing tons of bad things to our body.”

Contemplating producing a booklet on the subject of the ways mere sitting could harm the curvature of one’s spine, create neck and back pain and lead to more serious physical and mental problems such as depression, obesity and heart disease, Anderson decided more research was needed.

His new book, “All This Sitting is Killing You,” offers a scientific approach on the long-term impacts from an epidemic that he says can be reversed with a little more daily mobility.

The book offers practical guidance on how to counterbalance daily stresses and demands the musculoskeletal system absorbs from simple tasks and activities the body performs.

“Half the book is all the negative effects on the body … and then the other half is strategies to improve your life in terms of health and activities,” he said. “There’s balance and yoga and stuff about walking and strength training, exercise, stretching in the second half of the book.”

On Anderson’s website, www.drparleyanderson.com, he provides videos showing sample stretches anyone can do in an office chair, including knee extensions, shoulder internal rotations and cervical spine retractions, to assist with mobility. Best results come from performing these stretches at least two or three days a week, he said.

“Whether you’re sitting with perfect posture or slouching, you’re creating chronic stiffness and probably pain or symptoms, and it’s better with good posture,” Anderson said. “Or if you’re sitting with bad posture, you’re still sitting and accumulating joint strains, and you need to get up and move every half hour.”

Anderson said his findings about this “sitting disease” for the current times especially are relevant now but somewhat coincidental given COVID-19’s timing.

“It wasn’t until I was in the final stages that I had written it and I was going through the editing process that (COVID) came up, so there’s nothing specifically addressing the effects from COVID, but it’s pertinent today because people are staying at home,” he said.

With his 17 years in clinical physical therapy, Anderson said his knowledge of helping others to keep their posture healthy and strain reduced from their shoulders, backs and hips by standing more and sitting less was important to the book. He is board certified in orthopedic physical therapy and has been an owner for 10 years of Active Physical Therapy in Reno and professor of kinesiology at the University of Nevada, Reno for 11 years.

Due to the pandemic, he has been teaching his physical therapy classes through Zoom, which he said is slightly more challenging but it keeps him energized as an instructor being able to connect with students at UNR. He also hopes the book also could prove useful as a textbook for his students and other instructors in the area.

Anderson said he hopes the book will be useful to those who are seeking to make other changes in their lifestyle as well, including nutrition or giving up smoking.

“It’s a fun road and probably the best choice I made professionally (working in physical therapy),” he said. “Part of the joy of my career is to help people restore their life to them. It’s highly rewarding along the way.”

The book is available on Amazon.com or through Barnes and Noble.

For information, visit www.drparleyanderson.com.