Perfect your posture & sitting habits

Even if you exercise regularly, too much sitting can be bad for you. Here’s what you can do to stand up for your health

WHEN health professionals warned several years ago that sitting was the new smoking, people vowed to exercise regularly in a bid to keep heart disease, diabetes – and back pain – at bay.

Sitting for too long has been linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and depression.

It’s also a common cause of back and neck pain.

But while working out does have numerous health benefits, new research indicates exercise alone isn’t enough to counteract the unhealthy effects of sitting.

So what’s a desk-bound person to do? What if your job requires you to be seated most of the time?

You need to move more throughout the day, experts say. Regular gym sessions just don’t cut it.

The American Heart Association’s latest research indicates that in addition to getting the recommended 30 minutes of moderate activity daily, you need to move more during the course of the day if you want to lower your risk of heart disease and other health problems. And of course it’ll be good for your back and neck too.

Here are some tips on how to beat the harmful effects of being too sedentary. MOVE – LIKE CLOCKWORK Get up every 20 minutes or half hour – whatever works for you – and move around a bit, even if all you do is stretch your arms above your head. Set an alarm if you need a reminder.

“At a minimum, you should be getting up every hour,” says Alan Hedge, director of the human factors and ergonomics laboratory at Cornell University in the US.

He recommends that after sitting for 20 minutes, you stand for eight minutes and then move around for two minutes. Think about whether there are any tasks you could do standing up that you could tackle during those eight minutes.

Hedge isn’t a fan of standing desks as he says you can’t fix the problems linked with sitting by simply standing more. “It’s possible to stand too much too,” he says. “And standing is associated with a variety of adverse health effects, including increases in back complaints, varicose veins and problems with the feet.”

And it’s not good for your posture either. “After standing for more than 10 minutes, you’ll start to lean.”

You need to move more throughout the day, experts say