Happy New Year! Welcome to our first blog of 2022!
Are you conscious of the amount of time you are sitting down for every day? On average, an individual sits for nine hours a day, between working, reading, watching television, travelling by car/bus etc, this figure does not include sleep.
Regular exercise, at least 150 minutes a week, and reduced sitting time is thought to reduce the risk of ill health from inactivity. Studies have linked being inactive with being overweight and obese, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and early death.
In relation to sitting; sitting for long periods is thought to slow the metabolism, which affects the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and break down body fat.
Adults have been advised to sit down less throughout the day, this includes when you are at work and also when travelling and when at home.
Some tips to reduce your sitting time include:
- Standing on your commute if possible i.e. if you are on the train or bus
- Take the stairs instead of the lift and walk up escalators where possible
- Set a reminder to get up and move about every 30 minutes
- Stand or walk around while on the phone if possible
- Take a walk break every time you take a coffee or tea break
- Swap some tv time for more active tasks or hobbies
- Find music or a podcast you enjoy and walk whilst listening
- Use a smaller water glass for example this will force you to move to get more
- Drink more water, this may lead to more toilet breaks!
- Dress for activity or pack runners for activity
Though we can’t help with all the above tips we can help you with increasing the amount of time that you stand for! We have a wide selection of standing desks/height adjustable desks both manual and electric that will help promote longer periods of standing during the day. We will discuss these in our next blog.
Thank you for reading.
