Wondering why we keep saying sitting for too long is bad for you?

Nowadays, it has been found that the average person spend more than half of their time in a day in ‘sedentary pursuits‘. This fancy term basically is a broad expression envelopping effortless, energy saving behaviour such as: sitting watching tv, playing video games, working sitted at the computer, reading, sitting in the tube, taking the elevator instead of stairs etc. Sounds familiar to anyone?

Did you know that, compared to people sitting for little time, people that sit for too long have:

• 112% increase in risk of diabetes
• 147% increase in cardiovascular events
• 90% increase in death caused by cardiovascular events
• 49% increase in death from any cause

It is commonly said and recommended to spend 150 minutes of ‘exercise’ per week, but everyone has different needs and metabolisms.

But why is sitting so bad for us? Here are some reasons:

– you don’t spend energy, your body is shutting down and there is little muscle activity. your metabolism is slown down.
– you adopt poor posture, overstraining some muscles and underusing some other, collapsing your back and overusing your neck
– by not moving and having a poor stature you don’t stimulate blood flow and general fluid mechanisms responsible for the good health of your tissues (muscles, ligaments, nerves, organs etc) and you end up having aches and pains, head aches and poor digestion.

So how to fight sedentarism in your every day life? Little things and changes such as:

– taking the stairs instead of lift or escalator,
– walking 20 minutes instead of taking a bus or a tube for couple of stops
– having regular breaks from your desk work and go for a walk, do some stretches
– find an exercising activity to do regularly: running, yoga, spinning whatever works for you the best

Movement is health, so keep up with it and your body will thank you 😉