The March 2012 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine shows just how deadly sitting down can be.
Using data from over 265,000 individuals, the shocking research showed that people who sit for more than 11 hours a day experienced a 40% higher likelihood of dying from any cause.
And if you sit from 8 to 11 hours a day, you still experience a 15% higher probability of dying than those who sit for less than four hours each day.
The dangers caused by too much sitting include but are not limited to:
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Colon cancer
- Breast cancer
- Heart Disease
- Metabolic Syndrome
- Heart attack
And Harvard researchers have shown that watching TV for just two hours a day increases your chances of developing Type II Diabetes by a full 20%.
That same 120 minutes of sitting and watching your favorite television programs means you are 15% more likely to develop heart disease as well, including possibly triggering a heart attack or stroke. And more than three daily hours of television viewing, which is generally done while sitting, substantially increases the danger of dying from any disease.
The dangers of sitting down all day are many as are the rewards of an active lifestyle. One HealthPop study showed that too much sitting combined with an overall sedentary lifestyle caused as many as 43,000 instances of colon cancer, as well as nearly 50,000 cases of breast cancer among the study participants.
And incredibly, simply standing instead of sitting, exercising, bending and stretching while sitting, and a couple of brisk walks a day can drastically reduce the chance that you will succumb to the dangers of sitting.
No other respected health organization than the World Health Organization has openly stated that physical inactivity and frequent sitting is the leading cause in a full 21 to 25% of all breast and colon cancers, according to their research. That same sedentary lifestyle and extended periods of sitting also contributes to at least 27% of Diabetes and a full 30% of ischaemic heart disease, according to WHO.
That same World Health Organization found that the dangers of sitting down all day are so plentiful, they consider a sedentary lifestyle one of the top 10 causes of all death and disability, making up for more than 300,000 early deaths annually in the US.
The dangers of sitting for extended periods of time, whether it be in your vehicle, at work or on your couch at home, cannot be ignored by those people looking to enjoy a healthy and fit lifestyle which leads to a longer and happier life. So, give this information to a friend or loved one and turn them into a workout buddy.
How Workout Dates Help You Stick To Your Goals
The key to attaining your fitness goals is to work out with consistency. You start a new exercise program filled with excitement and goals, but soon you are bored with the same exercise routine, discouraged by the lack of results, or sidetracked by life in general. Pretty soon, you are back to your old ways of sitting on the couch and eating ice cream and potato chips.
Keeping that excitement and commitment going over the long haul is hard, but here are some ways that can help you stay the course:
- find an exercise buddy
- schedule your workouts
- structure your workout time
Find an Exercise Buddy
Whether you exercise with a friend or your significant other, being accountable to someone other than yourself is a great way to keep you on track. When you commit to working out with someone, you do not want to let them down, nor do they want to let you down, so not showing up for a workout becomes more difficult than just going.
Schedule Your Workouts
If you are like me for something to get done, it has to be on my schedule. If not, something always takes priority and consequently the non-scheduled things take a backseat; workouts are no different.
However, by scheduling your workouts both on your personal calendar and the one you have at work, your workout time becomes just as important as anything else you have scheduled. If you are using an electronic calendar, such as Gmail or Yahoo, set the reminder so you get either an email or pop-up reminder a certain time before your workout is supposed to begin.
Structure Your Workout Time
Do you have a plan on what routine you are going to do each time you go to the gym? Do you know which days you are doing strength training and which days will be cardio?
A great way to make planning easier is to join some classes. That way the planning is done for you. Then, each week you know on Monday you have a spinning class at 1:00 p.m.; on Tuesdays, you have aerobics at 3:00 p.m., etc. This makes planning your fitness workouts much easier; it is harder to skip a workout when you know you have to be at a certain place at a certain time and other people are expecting you to be there.
Exercising on a consistent and routine basis will eventually become part of your healthy lifestyle. Eventually you will reach a point where you will feel guilty if you have to miss a session – even if it is due to something beyond your control.
But to get to that point, where exercising becomes second nature, requires diligent and deliberate dedication to succeed on your part. These “4 Tips To Make Exercise More Fun” can give you some additional ideas and you can visit http://MyFitnessNut.com and subscribe to the My Fitness Nut Newsletter to stay up to date on the latest health and fitness trends.
