What Is A Sedentary Lifestyle?
When you don’t find time to exercise or move around much, you are the proud owner of a sedentary lifestyle. Sedentary lifestyles involve a lot of sitting down and lack of movement, with little to no exercise on a day-to-day basis.
With today’s technological advances, it is very easy to sit on the couch and glue yourself to your phone or tablet screen. We’ve all been there- binging multiple seasons of your favorite show is usually more preferable than going an excruciating hike. If you work a desk job, there’s a large possibility that you are sitting for the majority of your day while working. It is estimated that adults need at least 150 hours of moderate movement each week for their health, and many adults are not meeting this requirement. While it is far easier to remain sedentary, it is not ideal for your health.
Keep reading to find out what a sedentary lifestyle does to your mind and body.
How Does An Inactive Lifestyle Affect Your Body?
Living an inactive lifestyle leads to a variety of issues.
- When living an inactive lifestyle, it is hard for your body to burn excess calories. This leads to weight gain. Extra weight has a major impact on your overall health, and can disrupt hormones.
- Without using your muscles, you will begin to lose muscle tone and endurance.
- Your immune system may become compromised and not as effective.
- Your blood will find it more difficult to circulate throughout your body without any blood-pumping exercise.
- Your metabolism may have a harder time breaking down nutrients, which can mess with your metabolism as a whole.
Some of these health conditions can be attributed to a sedentary lifestyle:
- Obesity
- Heart disease
- High cholesterol
- Stroke
- Diabetes
- Certain types of cancer
- Increased depression and anxiety
As seen from the lists above, living a sedentary life is a huge issue, and it isn’t worth the risk to your health.
How Can You Improve Your Lifestyle?
We get it… it isn’t always easy to change a sedentary lifestyle, especially when you work at a desk job and don’t have opportunities to move around much. Read on for tips to get more movement into your day.
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If you don’t move much in general, start out slowly. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself. You don’t need a gym membership, and you don’t need to start out as a hardcore workout addict.
- Just doing simple things, like moving around the house to clean, counts as movement. Standing up in the garden, doing laundry, or washing dishes all count!
- You don’t need to buy a treadmill or elliptical machine. Just start where you are and move! Do you have stairs in your house? Try climbing them more than usual, just to add extra steps and intensity.
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Stuck at a desk? Try buying a small bike pedal machine that can go under your desk to get your legs moving. Take breaks and do stretches, or walk laps around the office during your lunch break.
- Try to aim for movement once every hour when at work. Opt for the stairs instead of the elevator! Visit your favorite colleague across the office for a chat. Or do some yoga stretching!
Now that you’ve got some ideas for fixing a sedentary lifestyle, try out some of the tips and start out at a pace that works for you!