200313 Sitting is dangerous

Sitting is dangerous

The American cancer society tracked approximately 53,000 men and 70,000 women over a span of fourteen years. After reviewing the questionnaires the researchers discovered that the longer a person sat, the greater were the chances they would die during the course of the fourteen year study.

The women who were dying sat longer than six hours a day and these times did not include time spent sitting at work. These women were thirty four percent more likely to die than those who sat less than three hours a day. Those who died did so from heart disease or stroke.

The seventeen percent of the men who sat in excess of six hours a day were more likely to die than their counterparts who sat less.

This was true whether or not these individuals regularly exercised.

The people who were the least active were the most likely to die as their risks were higher. For example, those who did not exercise, even missing out on a brisk walk, and who sat for at least six hours a day were nearly twice as likely to die when compared to the ones sitting for less than three hours.

The men suffered a similar fate. Those who sat for at least six hours a day and didn’t exercise were one and half times at risk for dying.

So what can you do to help prevent your early demise?

You all know the answer: Get up and start moving!

Move around at work, walk to the drinking fountain, carry your mail to the out box or the mailroom and get out of the office on your coffee and dinner breaks. Do some stretches in the break room, start a fitness trend at work. Find a fitness buddy and challenge one another to see who can exercise every day at work.

When you’re at home walk to the mail box or paper box, do a few fast runs in place for thirty to sixty seconds at a time. Do ten to twenty counter top push ups and then during the commercials do leg raises, flutters, curl ups, squats and calf raises.

The short and sweet of this is you have to get off the dime and get moving if you want to have a longer life.