While we all knew the sedentary lifestyles weren’t doing us any favours, the new health implications it has are shocking. Some compare, sitting to smoking, claiming it’s as bad as smoking. Several studies have found a link between sitting in one place for too long and early death. Now if you’re a hiker for living, there’s nothing to worry. But chances, you are sitting in your office 8 to 10 hours a day, just like us. Thankfully, a study conducted by the University of Cambridge also came up with a solution for it.
The research
For the research, the research team from the University of Cambridge has reviewed 16 different studies for the duration of 13 years. This included data from more than 1 million people. The team concluded that one hour of moderate physical activity (walking, biking) can negate the effect of a sedentary lifestyle or sitting in a place in a day for more than eight hours in a day. The research is the first review on this topic.
The team said that the studies that got evaluated by itself were too narrow to capture the impact of the exercise. Although, when put together collectively, the benefit for it came through.
A different study pointed out that if a person spent five or more hours sitting or watching TV, the person has to exercise 60-70 minutes to reduce the risk of any health issues caused by sitting. Experts also pointed out that watching an excess of television was associated with a generally unhealthy lifestyle even if a person did engage in physical activity.
Other ways
If your busy schedule doesn’t allow you to give a complete hour in the gym or for a yoga class, you can achieve it by splitting it into 10 minutes of six workout sessions, which give about the same effect. Additionally one can also try sneaking in more movement in their day to day activities – like taking stairs, walking to the grocery store, taking your dog for a walk often and doing household chores.
Hope these suggestions help you out. How many hours of physical activity do you manage to clock in a week? Let us know in comments below.
