A new study confirms it: sitting for long periods of time is bad for your health. A November 2023 study found that Any activity is better for your cardiovascular health than sitting. People who spent most of their time sitting at work in the past week were 16 percent more likely to die from any cause and 34 percent more likely to die from cardiovascular disease.
For many of us, our sedentary lives are built into the jobs that tie us to laptops and office chairs. (And when we come home from work, the sofa looks so true Seductive.) So how do we get off our backs and actually get up and move? Here’s what experts recommend.
If we sit all day, how much exercise do we need?
First – how much we need to move Compensating for the negative effects of sitting? Keith Diaz, an associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center who studies the importance of movement, told Yahoo Life that the best is “five minutes of movement every half hour.” If you did, he says, “you’d lower your blood sugar by 60%, and you’d lower your blood pressure by four to five points compared to sitting down.” This movement is not so extreme – His study He found that walking about 2 miles was enough to counteract the effects of sitting.
“Your body needs regular activation,” Diaz told Yahoo Life. “Your muscles need to contract regularly in order for them to function optimally and do the things they need to do, such as sugar levels and fats or oils in our blood.”
But Diaz knows that moving for five minutes every half hour isn’t good for everyone — whether you’re stuck in an hour-long work meeting or more than three hours — plus Oppenheimer check? According to a study by Diaz’s group, even just one minute of movement every hour can lower blood pressure by about five minutes every half hour. While blood sugar levels don’t improve compared to sitting, Diaz says, “it does have some health benefits.” That’s why Diaz tells people to “take an activity break every half hour to an hour.” If you can do more than a minute every hour, great, and if not, at least you’re getting something.
How to sneak activity into your rival’s day
So how do you get this activity right? Experts agree that it’s sneaking in what Diaz calls “activity snacks.” Personal trainer based in Los Angeles Collins, Ezq He tells Yahoo Life that you might want to try “active meetings” during your work day. That might mean talking to your co-worker on a walk instead of at their desk or in the conference room, or listening to your dog while you walk.
Stretching while you’re at your desk whenever possible or doing simple non-disruptive exercises like standing rows can help you sneak in more movement, he says. And, if you can’t avoid such desk-based workouts, you might want to work in frequent water or bathroom breaks.
Exercise also helps — but it’s not enough on its own to avoid the negative health problems associated with sitting for long periods of time, warns Diaz. “I exercise all day, I don’t have to move all day,” he said. Even marathon runners sit down most of the day, he says. They are at higher risk for things like heart disease, cancer and early death, he said.
Tracking your steps will help you see how much you move
One way to track your activity throughout the day is by seeing how many steps you’re taking. Just don’t trust that inflated 10,000-level number as your guess: personal trainer Tony Coffey, podcast producer Fitness equipment (for normal people)According to Yahoo Life, “Setting a step count goal should be relative; Because depending on the size of your business, setting a goal of 10,000 steps may not be realistic. Instead, he recommends looking at whatever your current step count is and aim to increase it by 2,000 to 3,000 steps. “This can be done by adding a 10-minute walk after each meal or a short 30-minute walk after your work day before starting your evening activities,” he explains.
A treadmill that walks under a standing desk can be especially helpful if your job makes it difficult to get away from the computer to walk all day, says Coffey. Make sure you can do your job and keep your balance so it’s not too distracting.
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