2 Hours of Activity Could Activate Your Health
By Sandy Schroeder
When there is work to be done, most of us do it without worrying too much about the effort expended. In a fast-paced world with many daily demands, many of us sit up to 15 hours a day to keep our world spinning.
Think About Your Schedule
Every morning you probably begin work at your desk and keep right on going throughout the day. You may eat and take breaks at your desk too. Then you may drive home in a fairly long commute, sit down for dinner, and finally collapse on the sofa. Or you may even sit hunched over your phone for another hour or two, polishing off a few more things.
Time to Break Up That Schedule
Prevention tells us we could boost our health and avoid a lot of painful consequences by punctuating this sitting schedule with short breaks that add up to two hours of activity.
One study in the European Heart Journal says, "Little breaks don't seem like much, but they add up." If you spread two hours out over 16 hours of awake time, you could simply do two-minute walks each hour and lower your risk of serious disease or death by as much as 33 percent.
You can also break up your schedule by standing for discussions at work, making phone calls while using a stationary bike, and adding short stretching sessions during breaks and after lunch.
At home you could put a treadmill or yoga mat in the family room, and add walks after dinner. Get creative to get moving and consider what you will be avoiding. Check out the impacts of sitting too much.
Anxiety and depression link to lack of exercise - Researchers have found the more you sit at work the greater your risk of impairing your mental health as worry and tension settle in.
Neck and back pain - Doctors say just four hours of sitting can compress a key disc in the lower back. Poor posture can lead to neck disc problems too.
Heart disease, obesity and diabetes - The more you sit the more you open the body up to issues with insulin, inflammation, and vascular functions.
Fragile bones and fracture risks - The body needs to move to keep the bones strong to avoid osteoporosis and fractures from falls.
Blood clot risk - When we sit too much the blood flow in the legs slows and clot-preventing proteins are diminished. Researchers found women who sat for more than 40 hours per week doubled their risk of clots moving to the lungs.
Whatever it takes, find a way to put two hours of activity into your daily schedule to stay healthy.
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Spring, Tex.