If you’re anything like us, sitting down for long periods is your forte. It’s not hard to do this in the current year, as remote working from home, office jobs, and the long periods of lockdown we’ve all had to endure. In addition, the general relaxation of modern recreation (such as keeping up on Netflix television shows). We also sleep for a third of our lives.
Therefore, moving around with intention is a must.
After all, sitting for long periods can cause problems like a lack of blood circulation, a weakening cardiovascular health, a bent posture, a lack of muscle development particularly in our core muscles. Undoing the damage of sitting, then, is about more than just getting healthier, but restoring our body, minds, and spirit to become more active, more upright, and more alert during the day. This way, we feel better.
In this post, we’ll discuss how to achieve exactly that:
Get Up & Stretch
It’s essential to get up and stretch during the day, providing that we have the chance to leave our work for breaks from time to time. Getting up and walking around, performing circular movements with our arms, ankles, and legs, and taking care of static and dynamic stretches will help our bodies iron out the kinks they may have had otherwise while still giving us the chance to get active and restore our posture. You’ll also find that a sit-stand workstation gives you the ability to do this regularly.
Consider Your Eye Health
It might not sound like sitting can harm your eye health, but the truth is that when you sit down, often you’re looking at the same focal point for a certain amount of time, be that a laptop screen, a television, or a book. Our eyes are designed to move around and see things at all different depths, and so the 20/20/20 rule can apply here to help you avoid eye strain. Put, every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This way, you can slowly reduce eye strain and stop being overwhelmed by only looking at a few focal points all day. It does make a difference.
Posture Exercises
It’s good to perform a few posture exercises once in a while. Often, this means building up your core muscles. Yoga exercises can do a fantastic job of this, but so can stretching, weight lifting using ergonomic barbell movements, planks, sit-ups and press-ups, and more. The more you build your core strength, the better your back and core can hold up your body, and the less you need to recline to hold yourself. Also, if you tend to suffer from a bad posture, posture exercises will help give you a more upright stance.
Scientific Workout Under 10 Minutes
For those who are a little more ambitious in overcoming the damage from sitting, there are exercise programs to get our metabolism moving again. One of the negative effects of sitting for most of the day is our metabolism slows down causing weight gain and low energy. Both work to make moving even harder. Now our bodies and mind are working against us.
However, there are scientific methods for working out that actually work in under 10 minutes a day. Give Stefanie Turner a try at Daily Om. Sign up for her class and let me know if it helps.
With this advice, you’re sure to undo the damage of sitting for too long in one position.
