These days, most 9-5 jobs include sitting in front of a desk for most time of the working hours. Your job gets pretty demanding that way and you hardly get any time to yourself to move out for a breath of fresh air. And this can stress you out and make your body feel stiff in just one sitting position. No wonder sitting all day is called the new smoking these days. There have been so many researches and studies that have been talking about whether or not working out can decrease the negative effects of sitting. And we're finally out with the good news that it does. So if you're looking for a solution to get out of your sedentary lifestyle and get more healthy, here's what you need to read and know.
The number of hours spent sitting is directly proportional to the increased risk of death, especially in adults who aren't that active. It only gets as scary as it sounds if not taken proper care of. But we now have our hands on a new study that says that increasing your physical activity can very much cut down on that association. Which simply means, you need to increase the active time in order to effectively kill the risk caused by too much sitting. It will work even better if you someone work your way out and start sitting less.
Emmanuel Stamatakis, PhD, lead author of a paper said, “Our results support continued efforts to promote physical activity in those segments of the population that sit a lot for whatever reason. In the absence of some physical activity, merely reducing sitting times may be insufficient for better health.”
The study was conducted on 149,077 people out of which there were women who aged 45 years and older. The results said that if you sit for more than six hours you need to increase your physical activity as it will impact your health in a better way and cut down the risk of death. If you're a low sitter, which means you sit for less than six hours, you're already at your best at reducing the risk of death. So, high sitters are the ones to make the big switch from sitting to standing often.
Says Stamatakis, “A possible explanation for this is that among the most sedentary participants, standing may not be sufficient for reducing health risks. Instead, substituting sitting for brisk walking may be a better option that is feasible by a majority of adults.”
If you indulge in vigorous physical activity, it'll work wonders for your health, however it isn't quite feasible for all adults to do so. This is why, high sitters should focus more on getting the normal kind of physical activity according to their schedule to better their health.
An investigator at the National Cancer Institute Charles E. Matthews notes, "Given that sedentary behaviors appear to be vastly out-competing more healthy physical activity behaviors during our discretionary time, it is more important than ever to attend to our daily physical activity and sitting time to try to optimize both behaviors for better health."
