Is “Sitting is the New Smoking?” even if you exercise everyday?
yes… even if you wake up and run five miles.
Founder of medicine’s Hippocratic oath, Greek Physician Hippocrates wrote 2500 years ago:
“parts of the body, if they are unused and left idle, become liable to disease, defective in growth and age quickly.”
“All parts of the body, if used in moderation and exercised in labors to which each is accustomed, become thereby healthy and well developed and age slowly; but if they are unused and left idle, they become liable to disease, defective in growth and age quickly.”
In today’s culture, we spend long periods sitting at desks, working on our computers and talking on phones. We sit while we drive our cars. We sit while we watch television. We actually encourage sitting: When was the last time you were invited to “come in and take a stand?”
But the fact is sitting is the new smoking, and when it comes to employees’ health, it’s a development that should be of equal, if not more, concern to employers. Sitting results in:
· An elevated risk of colon cancer (two times greater than active people).
· A greater chance of diabetes as inactivity can stifle insulin effectiveness.
· Chronic health issues like back and neck pain, carpal tunnel, varicose veins and blood clots, which can be reduced by 54% if workers use standing desks.
· An increased cost to employers of 7% by 2020 just from having sedentary (and possibly obese) workers on their payrolls.
Because of statistics like these, smart employers should find ways to make fixes to their employees’ everyday workplace routine.
A good place to start is by taking a look at the ideal work pattern. Every half hour should be divided into segments — 20 minutes for sitting, eight for standing in neutral postures, and two for moving and gently stretching. It creates a day where five hours are spent sitting, two, standing, and 30 minutes, moving, with 16 sit-to-stand transitions — that all helps offset the risk of sedentary habits…
Solutions: how can we sit less and get more variety?
*Stand up desks
* Get up from your desk at least once an hour
* Create an environment that you can get up and move
* At home don’t allow yourself to use the furniture to sit on. Instead sit on the ground- you will naturally move positions. You will find yourself leaning and shifting different positions when we sit on the floor…. Keep Moving!!!
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