Our new sedentary lifestyle is quite literally killing us...
You may have heard it said that sitting is the new smoking.
Whilst it might sound a little extreme genuine comparisons between the two can be drawn. Just like smoking, the harmful effects of sitting can be subtle but no less destructive with recent studies providing evidence to suggest that prolonged sitting increases the risk of developing serious illnesses such as cancers, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
One recent article summarised the problem as follows... “Sitting is more dangerous than smoking, kills more people than HIV and is more treacherous than parachuting. We are sitting ourselves to death.”
Kind of makes you sit up and listen doesn’t it (so to speak)...but it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom!!
Let’s make one thing clear here, it is not the sitting which is killing us...it is the sedentary lifestyle we lead around it that will see us off.
So what we must do is learn how best to use our time so that we can at least break these spells of prolonged sitting and introduce effective exercises to help combat all those aches, pains and potential illnesses, and that’s where we can come in.
So where do I start I hear you ask...
Well the first thing we’re going to encourage you to do as discussed is to break up those long periods sat in front of the computer screen. In order to achieve this we’re going to begin by asking you to move away from your computer screen and get up from your chair for as little as 1-2 minutes every single hour.
Easy right!?
I mean we’re not talking about taking on an insanity workout or even escaping the office but a simple visit to the water fountain, go and actually speak with Mike across the office instead of just firing him that email (sounds odd in today’s world doesn’t it), stick the kettle on or perhaps decide to make that phone call whilst taking to your feet in the corridor.
Committing to break those long periods of sitting down is simple, effective and a great place to start so why not set an alarm on your phone or on your computer to help you and get started on this one today.