DO YOU SIT DOWN ALL DAY? U
Here’s some tips you need to stop your body seizing up
nfortunately, many of us have jobs where we are required to sit for extended periods of the day. In terms of our health, it’s a terrible situation to find ourselves in.
Almost all the research on the subject suggests that sitting for long periods of time raises a number of health concerns, including obesity and metabolic syndrome — the umbrella term for conditions that includes increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels. Too much sitting also seems to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.
No wonder sitting has been described as ‘the new smoking’. For our bodies, it’s absolutely ruinous.
But it’s also an easy habit to develop. And I say “habit” here on purpose, because while many of us are office workers, that doesn’t necessarily mean to have to spend all day sitting down.
Let me give you a little more detail to help you visualise what I mean. The average commute in London is 45 minutes, each way. Most people sit for this (if possible), and then spend an average of seven to eight hours sitting at their desk. Add another an hour or two in front of the telly in the evening, and that’s almost 12 hours sitting down every day.
Even an hour’s exercise, three to four times per week does not cancel out this much inactivity.
The good news is that there are easy ‘fixes’ to rectify things. Studies suggest that getting up and moving regularly throughout the day can counteract the negative effects of sitting all day — so you can be an office worker and still give your body the movement it needs to stay healthy.