5 Tips To Avoid Sedentary Behavior
5 Tips To Avoid Sedentary Behavior
Reduce Your Sedentary Behaviour. If you stand or move around during the day, you have a lower risk of early death than if you sit at a desk.
If you live a sedentary lifestyle, you have a higher chance of being overweight, developing type 2 diabetes or heart disease, and experiencing depression and anxiety.
1. Legs and gluteals
Sitting for long periods can lead to the weakening and wasting away of the large leg and gluteal muscles.
These large muscles are important for walking and for stabilizing you.
If these muscles are weak you are more likely to injure yourself from falls, and strains when you do exercise.
2. Diabetes
Studies have shown that even five days of lying in bed can lead to increased insulin resistance in your body (this will cause your blood sugars to increase above what is healthy). Research suggests that people who spend more time sitting have a 112 percent higher risk of diabetes.
3. Weight
Moving your muscles helps your body digest the fats and sugars you eat. If you spend a lot of time sitting, digestion is not as efficient, so you retain those fats and sugars as fat in your body.
Even if you exercise but spend a large amount of time sitting, you are still risking health problems, such as metabolic syndrome.
4. Heart disease
Sitting for long periods has been linked to heart disease. One study found that men who watch more than 23 hours of television a week have a 64 percent higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than men who only watch 11 hours of television a week. Some experts say that people who are inactive and sit for long periods have a 147 percent higher risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.
5. Anxiety and depression
We don’t understand the links between sitting and mental health as well as we do the links between sitting and physical health yet, but we do know that the risk of both anxiety and depression is higher in people that sit more.
This might be because people who spend a lot of time sitting are missing the positive effects of physical activity and fitness. If so, getting up and moving may help.