Scary headlines jostle daily in the media to attract our attention.Many do not deliver on the message and become just so much unnecessary distraction in our everyday lives.Now, where our health maybe concerned most of us will always prick-up our ears and take notice for fear of missing something of importance. Standing-up for your health is a theme that has gained traction in the last few years, but does it work? Sitting is killing us? Many studies have concluded that sitting is killing us.As an example,one such calculates that just 3 hours a day watching television could result in the loss of 1.4 years of life.Now that is scary, and how did they get to that figure? Scaremongering is not the purpose of the60life. I am ,however, now persuaded that the lifestyle and working environment of many in the developed world,in which sitting occupies a large time slot, is not good for our health.
The weight of research indicates that as we sit,significant physiological changes occur within us.The effect of these changes over time can raise the risk of heart disease,stroke,diabetes, and some kinds of cancer. You can act now So what to do? As we get older there is a tendency for us to exercise less. We may just reach a stage where we feel ‘past it’ regarding certain sports or pastimes.Or this can be because of life changing events like retirement,which require less ordered mobility in our daily lives. As fitness levels drop general health will also suffer.
The good news is that while you may not be able to continue to be an athletic god, or goddess, for ever you can take steps to stay healthy by significantly reducing the risk of serious and premature ill-health, and early death. These steps tend to involve during the day regular physical movements of a standing nature, rather than sitting.Clearly there needs to be a balance here.
Standing for eight hours a day is obviously not sensible.What is required is developing a lifestyle which has as its daily goal a sustained reduction in sitting time.
Building the habit of standing
How can we do this? The ways are many and various and don’t have to be strenuous or physically over demanding.While those who are willing and able to walk a great deal will benefit greatly from the best exercise available, other older people can still, through less sitting reap, significant health benefits. The following are just some the simple ways you can protect your health:
1. Walk – Yes try walking to the local shop for your daily newspaper rather than drive there
2.TV remote – you could throw this away and always rise from your chair to change channels or switch on and off ; when the TV’s on try doing some household jobs like ironing
3. TV commercial breaks – if you are going to spend some time viewing take a short walk,make a cup of tea, iron a shirt ,or whatever during every break 4.Walk and chat – Instead of a protracted coffee morning with a friend sitting at the table suggest a walk and chat instead in the fresh air
5.Take the stairs – in a public place with available lift, try the stairs if you can every time to reach your destination; if you have stairs at home plan to climb them a few times a day.
6. Stand – you could use a simple stand on which to place book or papers ,while you read for an appreciable time, standing -up
7. Gardening – just pottering around in the garden, you benefit not only from the fresh air but also from physical movement
8. Measure your activity – nothing is more encouraging than having a reference point or target to aim for, and then meeting it. A pedometer can be so helpful, providing a measure of achievement.
Although the focus here is on walking rather than standing, if you set yourself a reasonable daily walking target, perhaps the 5000 steps per day (the ‘average’) often suggested by health experts, or 10,000 steps daily often quoted as being really beneficial to health,you are certainly fulfilling your daily quota of standing – a 2 in 1 strategy! In all this, you must only do what you are comfortable with physically. This strategy may help you to build-up slowly to levels of fitness with health you never dreamed of having again.
Throughout your day, you can schedule simple opportunities like these to stand instead of sit.After a while, this should form a part of your daily routine which if you begin to fall down on,you will know that you have let go and you will miss it. References from the web Sitting is not good for you Sitting is the new smoking Stand up for fitness Sitting why it is so dangerous