This is guest post article by Diana Smith. She is a full time mom of two beautiful girls, she is interested in health and alternative medicine. She loves spending her time exercising and preparing healthy meals for her family. You can follow her on Twitter or on Google+
“If I didn’t have so much work, I would sit all day and watch a movie marathon,” says almost every person. If that’s something you would say too, you need to change something about your lifestyle. Today, we spend most of our time sitting in the office, after which we get home and sit down to take a break and watch TV. However, it’s not all about sitting.
Do you know that sitting down endangers not only your looks, but your entire life? Spending more than six hours sitting cuts your life for about seven years. Sitting causes numerous diseases, including heart attack, cancer, obesity, diabetes, physical disability and high blood pressure. If you have just recognized yourself in a couple of years, you should definitely reduce your sitting habits. Here are some facts about negative effects of sitting, as well as tips for their prevention.
How Does Sitting Down All Day Endanger Your Body
Sitting down as a long-term problem
When we talk about sitting, we don’t refer to one day spending in such position. It’s more about days, weeks, months, years or even decades we spend sitting, which leaves numerous consequences. For example, right after you sit, your body comes through some kind of shock because the activity of your muscles slows down and your calorie burning plummets. After the year of constant sitting, you might gain weight and your cholesterol might rise, while after an entire decade, your body would be more likely to be attacked by numerous diseases.
Sitting time causes a great number of terrible diseases, including cancer, heart attack, diabetes, obesity and bad cholesterol.
Sitting time causes a great number of terrible diseases, including cancer, heart attack, diabetes, obesity and bad cholesterol.
Why does sitting down cause health problems?
As the modern science develops, doctors keep finding numerous health problems caused by sitting. However, no one can still determine the exact reason what the actual connections between sitting and diseases are. One of numerous possibilities is that, as we sit for a long time every day, our blood flows slowly and our muscles are unable to burn enough calories.
How can we change our habits?
As it has been already said, we spend most of our time sitting. Even people who love physical activity cannot undertake it because of numerous obligations at their work and home. If you feel that you can’t find time for working out, don’t worry. There are numerous simple yet effective exercises that don’t require making a lot of effort or spending much time. There is just one thing you should keep in mind- after an hour sitting, take a small standing break and get some mild physical activity in your spare time.
Is exercising enough?
Numerous scientific studies have shown that working out is not enough to prevent all diseases caused by sitting. There are numerous other steps you need to take up. However, even if not sufficient, working out is great for keeping both your body and mind healthy. Apart from damaging your body, the lack of physical activity also damages your mind.
At the very beginning, you should get 30 minutes of walking per day. For example, you could buy a pedometer, which would track the number of steps you take. Their number depends on the length of your steps, as well as on how fast you walk. After doing this for a while, you could also start jogging or hitting the gym regularly.
What are some additional exercises you could do?
Apart from working out, you should also keep in mind that they are not able to completely alleviate the entire time spent sitting. That is exactly why you should take short breaks from sitting. For example, while at work, you could simply stand up and stretch. Also, you could use smaller coffee cups so that you need to go and refill them more frequently. If you need a particular document placed on a shelf, stand up and take it instead of rolling your chair there.
If you are at home, don’t be a real couch potato. We all know how amazing feeling is when you sit down all exhausted and watch your favorite movie. If you like that feeling, you shouldn’t avoid it. Instead, consider working out during boring commercials. Several stretches and touching your toes for about twenty seconds will be more than enough.
Does the décor influence our health?
Have you ever had that terrible feeling that, after spending more than two our sitting, your entire body hurts? Well, that’s because your spine starts deteriorating. This quite sharp pain spreads all across our body, distracting us from our obligations. Apart from exercising and taking standing breaks, you should also consider buying more comfortable furniture.
One of the numerous great ideas is buying a standing desk at your office. Unlike traditional desks, a standing desk makes your blood circulate normally and enhances your everyday productivity at work. Another amazing idea is replacing your standard chair at the office with executive chairs. They usually have padding that supports your spine and enables you to spend a lot of time sitting at the desk without tiring your painful spine.
All in all, in the past decades, it was believed that we should sit down after some physical activity. Today, it seems that we should stand up in order to take a short break from sitting.
Other Articles Written By Diana Smith:
Treatment and Effective Ways To Minimize Scars after Surgery
How to Deal with the Ophthalmological Side Effects of Programming
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