by Kathleen Parker
You can be very athletically fit, but if you are SITTING ALL DAY with minimal walking or movement, your health will most definitely suffer.
According to Dr. Mercola’s Optimal Fitness, when you stop moving for extended periods of time, it is like telling your body to shut down and prepare for death. Sitting for more than an hour slows your metabolic rate drastically, your arterial dilation — the ability for your arteries to expand and allow more blood flow to flow through them — is reduced by 50%, with the corresponding decrease in blood flow. Your blood sugar levels, blood pressure, cholesterol and toxicity levels all rise, and the cellular mechanisms involved in the maintenance of your body and health SHUT DOWN.
Studies looking at life in natural agriculture environments show that people in agrarian villages sit for only about three hours a day, a baseline of a heathy amount of sitting that is a stark contrast to the nine or more hours the average American spends seated in a daily office job and then later on in front of the TV.
SO… YOU NEED TO GET UP EVERY HOUR! You can set an alarm on your phone or computer that rings every hour to remind you to get up – maybe climb the stairs in your office or go for a walk around the block.
“Walking is not considered an exercise, but rather an essential movement that we all require,” according to Dr. Mercolas Guide to Optimal Fitness. Walking is a phenomenal maintenance activity that will allow you to stay healthy into old age. In fact, the older you get, the more important it becomes.
The good thing about walking is that it does not tear your body down too much, so it does not require recovery time like exercise can. The flip side is that walking won’t build your body up much either, even if you are taking the much-heralded 10,000 steps a day.
Another solution along with walking is a standing desk. According to Dr. Levine, a consultant with Fortune 500 companies, in every company that implements standing desks for their workers productivity increased. Sitting for less than an hour at a time or standing at a desk has also been proven to decrease back pain!
Sitting less requires a change in thinking and being — a change in how we live. Your best solution is to stand up as much as possible, making it your goal to sit for 3 HOURS OR LESS DURING YOUR WAKING HOURS!!
Lets try this!!
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