Why Sitting is the New Smoking

Smoking used to be the worst thing you could do for your health. Now, it seems that sitting or being sedentary is.

Think about how many times you sit over the day. Most of us  sit to eat, to work, to travel, to watch TV, to scroll through our smartphones, to relax, to talk to people at the café…the list goes on!

The current research shows that if we sit for 30 minutes or more at a time we are putting ourselves at risk of a long list of health issues, such as:

  • Obesity

  • Muscle wastage and weakness

  • Hip pain

  • Back pain

  • Neck pain and headaches.

More serious conditions may also occur:

  • Cardiovascular disease

  • Anxiety and depression

  • Cancer

  • Diabetes

  • Increased mortality

Sounds scary and like smoking, right ?!

The good news is that we don’t need to quit sitting altogether; a little bit of sitting is OK.

If we get up for 2 minutes every half hour we can reverse all those risks.

So, at work find a reason to get up every 30 minutes.

Maybe you:

  • Lose the drink bottle and use a cup that you need to fill up.

  • Instead of sending an email, get up and walk to the person and tell them face-to-face.

  • Schedule your meetings with blocks between them in different rooms.

  • And spend one of your 30 minutes normally spent sitting doing some moderate intensity exercise.

Don’t take this sitting down!

Do you need some motivation and guidance  to get you moving?

Please call us at Performance Medicine today….

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Catherine Etty-Leal