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 WEEKLY ARTICLE

Don't Just Sit There

On my recent trip north I spent a few days with a close girlfriend of mine who would not sit down.

As she paced back and forth incessantly, she said: "I read that if you spend less than three hours a day sitting you could add two years to your life expectancy"!

I have actually read similar reports myself so I believed her.

There was a recent study done at Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena California for example that found that people who sat for at least five hours a day (outside of work), and didn't exercise much, were at more than double the risk for heart failure than those who sat for less than two hours a day and were physically active.

One can only conclude that too much sitting is bad for you!!

Not just for your heart, but for your bones, for your circulation, for your muscles, for your legs and feet, and for your posture and spine to name a few.

In fact, another study showed that too much sitting has been linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, and death itself, from cancer, heart disease, and stroke. 

And yet another study (the one my girlfriend must have read) found that if most people spent fewer than three hours a day sitting it would add two years to the average life expectancy in the USA.

But we all have to sit.

At our computers. At our desks. At our jobs. At our meals. At the movies!

And we can't all be as crazy as my girlfriend, and shift our entire lives around so that we never have to sit!

So what are we to do??

Well, for one thing, we can multi-task our sitting.

There are numerous exercise videos that teach entire sets of exercises that can be done while seated.

Some are designed for airplane travel, while others are designed for desk jobs.

Some are designed for the chair bound or temporarily injured.

There are even several versions of "chair yoga"

I have viewed many of them and find them VERY impressive and helpful.

Start by selecting a few simple exercises to get started, one's that speak to you. You can add to your repertoire as you go along.

Suggestion: Select innocuous exercises if you are going to be doing them anywhere that may offend others! 

Some of my favorites are:

• Leg Lifts, which engage your leg muscles and your core.

 

• Leg Presses, using the wall in front of your chair to strengthen the leg and knee muscles. Make sure that you keep your leg slightly bent so that you don't stress your knee joint.  

• Abdomen Tucks, which can isometrically strengthen the abdominal wall.

 

• Seated Kegel's. Do these by tightening the pelvic floor muscles several times, (as if you are stopping urination in mid-stream).

• Neck Rolls, which are an excellent way to keep the neck flexible while easing tension headaches - but be gentle if your neck is tight.

 

• Shoulder Rolls, an all time favorite. Try a few right now as you read this newsletter and see how great they feel!

• Foot And Ankle Stretches. Rotate the ankle, one foot at a time. Place a hand towel or washcloth on the floor and use your foot / toes to pick it up. 

• Hand And Wrist Stretches. Rotate the hand from the wrist - clockwise and counter clockwise - to keep your wrists nice and flexible.

 

• Arm Lift variations. You can do specific repetitions, or just raise and lower your arms randomly to stretch and strengthen them. Almost any arm lift, if done repetitively, will engage your arm muscles. You will feel the "burn" if you give it a try.

• Triceps Dips. You can do these if no one is watching or even if they are. These are traditionally done by raising and lowering your body with your arms behind you while seated on the edge of your chair, and are great for those flabby underarms!

  

• Torso Stretches. Simply raise, lower, and stretch your ribcage from side to side. You can add Neck Rolls, Shoulder Rolls, and Arm Lifts to the Torso Stretch for a full out of body experience!!

• Don't Forget To Breathe. Sitting is an excellent time to practice all sorts of breathing exercises. I encourage you to always take full advantage of the time you spend sitting by incorporating focused breathing into the mix.

 

I am sure that you can come up with many more fun and effective exercises to do while seated that will maximize the time you MUST spend sitting. Especially now that I have so graciously made you aware of the potential dangers that too much sitting can cause.

Hopefully none of us will ever just sit there again.

Instead, lets all Sit Actively!!

And whenever you can, don't sit at all.

Get up and get moving instead. It will do your body good!

May health, happiness, and prosperity be your unavoidable natural state and your ongoing daily experience.

Gayle and Jaime / Wholly Macro