Is Sedentary Lifestyle the biggest health risk today?
Your lifestyle is sedentary if you sit more than 5 hours a day. Most of us do, yet often not knowing sitting can cause many health risks. To function properly, human body systems need enough movement. When you sit, your body quickly switches over to a stationary 'rest' mode.
Here is what happens to the three most important body systems while you sit:
Cardiovascular -your heart rate and blood circulation become slow.
Metabolic circulation -your lymph circulation and waste removal halt.
Respiratory system -your breathing gets slow and shallow.
According to research, if your day includes 7 hours of sitting, you have already up to 40 percent higher risk of developing chronic conditions and diseases than someone who sits only 4 hours. The risks grow progressively the more you sit. Over time, the situation leads to many physical and mental problems, which, some of them, contribute to causes of early death.
Here are health issues sitting plays a role in:
Lower back pain
Osteoporosis
Muscle atrophy
Fatigue
Physicall boredom
Decrease of productivity
Digestive disorders
Lipid disorders
Obesity
High blood pressure
Artery calcification
Thrombosis
Diabetes
Weakening of the immune system
Diverse organ issues
Clearly, sitting is a silent threat. Every moment we sit working, studying, commuting, eating, watching TV, using digital media or just relaxing, our health is gradually challenged beyond its limits.
What can you do?
As a logical reaction many think we have to exercise more, but even this, according to research, is not the solution: a daily workout cannot easily nor completely erase the harm caused by long hours of static sitting. The main problem is that soon after we sit down our body resumes a rest mode. Therefore we start to loose most of the benefits gained from any activity, just in minutes.
Of course exercising is good and necessary, but the amount of sport needed to undo what sitting causes is much: someone sitting for 7 hours should jog for one hour to maintain health levels comparable to someone sitting only 4 hours a day. And if you sit 9-11 hours a day, like most of the people do, you need over 1.5 hours exercising, every day.
The daily reality is quite the opposite: according to a study in the 2008 (USA – NHIS), 59% of adults never do vigorous physical activity lasting more than 10 minutes per week. With this little exercise, sitting can cause damage without limits.
So How do I stop sitting from ruining my health?
My approach is to combine several elements, which are all very doable. The core idea is to improve body circulation throughout the day, especially during the time I sit.
To start with, I keep short movement brakes as often as possible. I get up and walk around, actively, for a few minutes. Another essential part is a daily walk, if possible, twice and always for 30 minutes or more.
Even more importantly, when I sit, I try to maintain the benefits from walking by doing Body Fine-Tuning. With other words, during the long periods of sitting I do well fine-tuned movements. One of them is a back and forth rocking movement of my pelvis, so subtle it is not visible to an outsider yet active enough to increase body circulation throughout my body.
To me, Body Fine-Tuning is a great way to improve the quality of any movement into something truly beneficial. Whenever I feel body stress building up, I simply do some subtle movements and fine-tune them. As a result I can stay productive and fresh throughout my day.
Thanks again for reading!
Oliver
Resources:
cbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26683116
smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/sitting-can-lead-to-an-early-death-study-20120328-1vy64.html