Did you
know?
5+ hours of
sedentary sitting is the health equivalent of smoking a pack and a quarter of cigarettes!
(1)
We were
never meant to sit for long periods of time. At work, driving, watching the
game - all this sitting breaks down the body. The consequences are many;
- Increases
your risk of death from any cause by 50% (2)
- Increases
your risk of cardiovascular disease or heart attacks by 125%
- Slows down
your blood flow (3)
- Makes your
hip flexors extremely tight (one of the common root causes of chronic back
pain)
- Slows down
your metabolism and make you burn 21% fewer calories than if you were standing
up (4)
- Worsens
your body’s ability to metabolize glucose and to handle carbs )increasing risks
of diabetes). (5)
Other
negative side effects include poor lymph flow, brain dysfunction, feeling
sluggish, poor bone density, weak digestion, bad posture, swollen feet, etc….
If you sit a
lot - you need to be smart.
As you know,
my motto is “Use it or Lose It”. In reality - MOTION IS LIFE.
“When you
take a movement break it doesn’t matter what you do, you can take a nice stroll
down the hall,” said Dr Keith Diaz, an expert in behavioural medicine at
Columbia University and co-author of a study on excess sitting.
Diaz noted
such periods could be as short as a minute in duration. “It is about just
adding up the activity across the day,” he said, adding that walking to a
co-worker’s desk rather than speaking on the phone, or having walking meetings,
were both ways in which sitting time could be reduced and activity boosted. 6
Another way
of looking at is is to ask a simple question:
"How
little will I sit?" Small movements have a big impact. Try some
NonExercise Activity Thermogenesis. Also known as NEAT try stretching,
flexing your toes and calves, stretching, or even fidgeting in your chair. All
of those movements require energy, and the calories add up, says Mayo Clinic
researcher James Levine. He also suggests that "The goal of sitting
should be singular: to give our bodies a break from moving."
Offset the Negative Side Effects from Sitting by taking breaks every 30
minutes and Stretching.
The
following stretches are designed to loosen tight hip flexors -that result from
sitting too much…
