Sitting is the new smoking. Recent studies have shown that sitting for over 4 hours a day have significant negative effects on your health, even if you are active and exercise.
We've got 8 moves to help you get moving at your desk and combat the negative effects of sitting and keep you healthy for life.
1. Stand up. As simple as it sounds, standing up and down 5 times every hour significantly decreases the risk of sitting to your health. Try this at the end of every hour.
2. Walk on your lunch break. Though movement every hour is better, getting in a walk at lunch is better than no movement.
3. Stretch at your desk. Move your neck, raise your hands over head, move your legs, roll your ankles, and roll your shoulders back to increase blood flow and flexibility while sitting.
4. Pace during phone calls. As silly as it sounds, walking during phone calls (or if you are able, meetings with coworkers) can be effective for getting your steps in during the office day.
5. Ditch the office chair. Stand up desks as well as exercise ball chairs are super effective in keeping you from sitting OR improving your posture while you sit.
6. Keep fitness bands or light weights under your desk. Use these simple, but effective pieces of equipment while you are waiting for something to load or print to squeeze in some resistance training at work.
7. Take the stairs. Enough said. You've seen people spend hours on the stair climber, why not take them in real life?
8. Drink more water. Not only will you have to get up and move to fill up your water bottle, but you will also have to get up and walk to the bathroom as well. Hydration is also important for all the metabolic processes to happen correctly in the body. Two benefits from one simple action.
Have you used any of these tips? Did you feel any different when you moved at work instead of sitting all day?