There is serious evidence that sitting all day puts you at risk for a number of illnesses. It goes beyond simply not exercising enough, did you know that sitting more than 3 hours per day is dangerous to your health and sitting more than 6 hours day can drastically shorten your lifespan, source: http://standingdeskcanada.ca/prolonged-sitting/can-too-much-sitting-kill-you/. I’m not saying you should leave your job or get sick to avoid work 😉 however; you do have other options. In this post we’ll be taking a look at what you can do to offset the risks of sitting for prolonged periods of time.
The most straightforward solution to avoid the risks of sitting is to spend less time sitting. Most office jobs call for sitting in front of a computer, though you do have a number of choices. Stand up desks are now widely offered, and if you get one of these you’ll not have to be concerned with sitting too much. Standing all day, however, can create risks of its own, especially if you have any joint or back troubles. The ideal is to alternate your time between standing upright and sitting down. Even if your work calls for sitting all day long, you can make sure that you stand regularly. When you’ve got a notebook computer, you could move it around. With a smaller device, you’ll be able to work very easily from either a seated or standing position.
By sitting down in the most supportive kind of chair, you could help reduce the potential risks of sitting down. You should get a chair that supports your back and that could be adjusted to the appropriate level for your height. Exercise ball chairs are one healthy choice, as these provide your muscles with a workout as you sit. Your posture has a whole lot to do with how healthy you are as you sit all day long. Keeping a straight posture helps avert many of the risks of sitting. You should also take note of your breathing when you sit, as well as at all times. Taking slow, deeper breaths helps energize your body and also helps foster healthy posture. Having the right kind of chair makes this less difficult.
Taking regular breaks from sitting is probably the most essential way to offset the dangers of being seated for hours on end. Besides taking lengthy breaks many times each day, you should also take shorter ones every couple of minutes. You should stand up every 15 minutes or so and stretch your whole body. You need to avoid sitting without any kind of break for a long period. Even a one minute break gives your body a needed break from the seated position. The real risks of sitting occur when people do it all day and seldom stand up.
We have looked over a number of the best ways to overcome the dangers of sitting. If you’re not informed about this issue, it may sound silly. Yet if you do the research, you’ll see that those who sit for hours on end really are at risk for developing serious health issues. If you apply some of the above steps, though, it is possible to lower these dangers. By taking frequent breaks, having healthy posture and sitting in a good chair you’ll be able to keep yourself healthy.