In today’s times, the average life expectancy of humans, all around the sphere, is much more than any figures a few decades ago. But is longevity, the only factor that ensures a better quality of life? Or do the period for which we stay healthy? Consequently, it is extremely important to ensure that these factors go hand in hand and together deliver us a much better lifestyle.
Thousands of years ago, we humans were “hunter-gatherers” making our way through the thick and thin of the forest to get sustenance. But, later on, we learnt how to grow food in areas of our convenience and this started the agricultural revolution. This was followed up with the industrial revolution. Eventually, we started processing food and filling it with extra sugars and fats and also started getting them delivered at our doorstep. This has concluded in your lifestyle changing to resemble more of a sloth bear over the past few decades.
What is sedentary?
Physical therapists describe sedentary lifestyle as the manner of life in which the activity inflicting burning of extra calories is limited to less than 30 minutes per day for at least three days a week over the period of three months.
The other two categories of the lifestyle include ‘semi-sedentary’ and ‘active’ lifestyle. In the semi-sedentary kind, a person is active for the partial time of the day and the other times in completely inactive. This is mostly used to refer to the lifestyle of the office desk population since they have to commute to reach their workplaces by undertaking the physical activity of walking, standing or driving a car but when they reach the destination, they sit for the long duration of time making them inactive for the rest of the day.
The active lifestyle is often used to refer to the lifestyle of fitness-oriented individuals who perform high-intensity training, yoga, running or fast-paced walking kind of activities for at least 3 to 4 days a week for a minimum of 30 minutes each.
Quarantine and sedentary way of life
As the world has been put under the lock down, the working population of the country has been compelled to work from home. This has led to the cut down of even the minute amount of calorie-burning activity that was happening in their body, to the minimal levels. New changes that have further contributed to the problem of passivity are the patterns of waking up late, going to bed late and having meals in an untimely manner.
Why sitting is the new smoking?
Sitting down feels good after walking for some time. In today’s world, we sit for much longer than our bodies are built for. Our body’s structure is composed of around 360 joints and more than 700 muscles. With this, it is definitely evident that our bodies are assembled to move. The very first thing that sitting does to your body is affecting the spine. Since we tend to sit with a slouched back, in the long run, the muscles of the back get stretched and weakened. It, also, results in the reduced space available for the lungs to expand, limiting the amount of oxygen being inspired and further, limiting the supply of oxygen to our muscles and the basic unit of life, the cell.
The blood circulation requires muscles to contract and relax but sitting for a long duration, the blood stagnates and pools in our system, and this restricts the availability of blood to the brain and reduces one’s concentrations span.
Detrimental effects of laziness
Sedentary Lifestyle reduces the activity of the fat-digesting enzymes in our body, this leads to the accumulation of the lipids in our blood vessels and around muscles and organs which is extremely harmful and lead to the following conditions in long run:
- Heart diseases
- Diabetes
- Kidney and liver problems
- In studies, published a few years back, by the American cancer society, sedentary lifestyle has been linked to various types of cancers.
This is so severe that every year, it contributed to 9% of premature deaths of the global population which accounts for around 5 million people.
Let’s fight indolence
With all the reasons listed above, I hope you understand that it is particularly important that we counter the laziness rooted deep inside us and work towards an active lifestyle.
Stand Up
If your job demands you to sit at the desk, the whole day, and you get involved in the projects, it gets very easy to lose the track of time. But make it a point to look after your health and stand after every 20 minutes or half an hour and move your body around. If you don’t want your task to get interrupted, you can continue the work while standing.
Take the stairs
A study published in 2017 said that stair climbing was found to burn many more calories than walking or jogging. Make it a point to climb the stairs.
Stretch during brakes
We know how it is to get lost in the drama and suspense of today’s television. But you definitely don’t want to be the subject of one of the documentaries made about your laziness. So just stretch your body in between those episodes and get back to unsolve the mysteries.
Home workout
If you get tired after the day and don’t want to hit the gym, then just download the apps available on play store and do the exercise at home. This is especially important for women, over the age of 25, since their bodies start deteriorating, leading to weaker bones and muscles and the only ray of hope are some weights waiting to be lifted.
Invest in a fitness tracker
If you are planning of buying yourself or your loved ones a lovely present then it should definitely be a fitness tracker. Cause there is no other supervisor of your own self better than you.
So let us stick with that saying of old days “health is wealth” and make the most out of our life by investing some time in making those biceps.