Being sedentary is the new smoking. Yes, not moving your body may be worse for your health than smoking. On average, people spend three-quarters of their waking hours being in one place, such as working at the computer, watching TV, scrolling on the phone, or reading a book. Not moving your body and not doing so often has apparent undesirable effects on the body at a musculature, skeletal, cardiovascular, and metabolic level. In addition, immobility increases your risk of all-cause mortalities. Recently I heard a new adage called the “active couch potato syndrome.” Active couch potato syndrome means someone is active for a short duration, maybe an hour at the gym, attending an exercise class, or going on a run, and then basically sits on the couch (or desk chair) for the remainder of the day and is hardly active.
The goal for this month’s challenge is to get our bodies moving and moving often! This month’s challenge is to move for three to five minutes every waking hour. The movements could be as simple as going to the kitchen to drink water or dropping to the ground to crank out push-ups. Avoid going longer than 60 minutes of being sedentary. Depending on your line of work, this may be easier for some, but if you have a desk job, keep an eye on the clock and get in your “movement snacks” throughout the day. As it may seem counterproductive to leave your work, taking movement breaks will increase your productivity and focus throughout the day. Movement snacks could be doing light stretches, walking to the mailbox, playing with the dog, doing a mini HIIT workout, or whatever gets the heart rate elevated. If you put in five-minute movement breaks every hour, you’ll accumulate around an hour of activity for the day. A good reminder that little by little, a little becomes a lot.
To MAS health,