Simple Activities And Exercises To Break Your Sitting Habit

Living a sedentary lifestyle can prove to be quite dangerous to your overall health. The lesser the amount of time you spend sitting or lying down, the better are your chances of living a healthy life.

If you stand or move during the course of the day, you have a significantly lower risk of early death than if you sit for extended durations at a desk. Moreover, if you live a sedentary lifestyle, you have higher risk of developing obesity, type 2 diabetes, or heart disease and experiencing anxiety and depression.

How Does An Active Lifestyle Help?

Human beings are built to stand upright. Your heart and the entire cardiovascular system work more efficiently this way. Your bowel also functions much more efficiently when you are standing upright. It is quite common for individuals who are bedridden in hospitals to experience problems with the functioning of their bowels.

Conversely, when you are physically active, your overall energy and endurance levels improve, with the strengthening of your bones.

Now, let’s look at simple activities and exercises to break the habit of sitting for extended periods.

Incorporate More Activity Into Your Day

Some effective ways to incorporate activity into your daily life include:

• Walking, cycling, and leaving the car at home
• For long trips, cycle or walk part of the way
• Use the staircase instead of the escalator or elevator, or at least walk up the escalator
• Get off the bus you have boarded one stop early and walk the remainder of the way
• Calculate how much time it takes you to walk one kilometre. You may surprisingly find out how you can reach your destination in a quicker way by walking in comparison with waiting for public transport

Be Active As Well As Safe

If you are extremely new to physical activity, or if you have developed an underlying health condition, talk to your doctor before you commence with any new activity. Healthcare professionals can help you in deciding the best and most optimum activities.

If you plan to get active outdoors, remember to protect your skin from the harmful UV rays of the sun by applying sunscreen and wearing sun-protective clothing, including a cap or hat.

Be Active At The Workplace

You can move around at your workplace in more ways than you can think:

• Ditch the elevator and take the stairs
• Walk over and speak to your colleagues instead of merely emailing them
• Take your lunch break away from your desk and opt for a short walk outside, if possible
• You may even organise walking meetings

Be Active Indoors

Do not let harsh weather stop you from being physically active. You may opt for bodyweight exercises such as squats, lunges, and sit-ups.

You may also try indoor activities such as dancing, yoga, Pilates, swimming, squash, martial arts, and indoor rock climbing.

Reduce Your Sedentary Lifestyle Practices

Mentioned below are some simple ways to get moving while you are at home, spending long hours sitting:

• When you are tidying things up, put items away in smaller trips instead of taking all of them together
• Set the time on your TV to turn off an hour earlier than what is usual to help you in remembering that it is time to get up and move
• When you are on the phone on a lengthy conversation, try walking around
• Stand up and spend some time ironing rather than sitting and watching TV shows
• Instead of sitting and reading, you may opt to listen to recorded books while you work, clean, or walk in the garden
• When you are using public transport, stand rather than sit

If you work in an office:

• You should opt for standing workstations or stand up while you read emails and reports
• Move your rubbish bin far away from your desk so that you need to stand up and walk to discard anything away.
• Use the speakerphone when it comes to conference calls and walk around the room in the midst of calls

To Sum It All Up

According to some researchers, sitting is the new smoking. Sitting for prolonged periods is a characteristic behaviour when it comes to living a sedentary lifestyle, which must be avoided as much as you can. There are umpteen ways and tricks to spend your time standing, walking, or simply being active rather than merely sitting, be it at your desk in the office or while watching your favourite shows on the television.

References:

• https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/the-dangers-of-sitting