Sitting All Day Can Reduce Your Lifespan

How Sedentary Life Can Kill You

Are you fond of sitting down all day at your desk for hours? You better stop now. Researchers from Cornell University studied 93,000 postmenopausal American women and have found out that those who are sedentary most of the time died early than their counterparts who are more active. Sedentary activity was defined as sitting, lying down or resting. The researchers found out that women who remain sedentary for 11 hours daily are at risk for all-cause premature mortality by 12 percent compared with women who are more energetic. The sedentary group of women were also prone to cardiovascular disease by 13 percent, to coronary heart disease by 27 percent and to cancer by 21 percent.

This is why women should stay physically active all the time, because it can protect you through a number of ways. Being sedentary can also weaken you and make it hard for you to regain physical strength. At age 35, majority of women lose muscle mass, and this speeds up while approaching menopause. Lifting weights and other forms of physical activity can counteract the changes encountered when one leads a sedentary life. This is why working out daily is recommended to maintain good health. It is better to start while younger so that more health benefits can be enjoyed.

Even in the office, women can get up and move frequently; the same also holds true when inside the house. You can move while watching TV, having breaks after being in the computer too long or after reading and being conscious of sedentary time.

Physical Activity

Now that you know that a sedentary lifestyle can kill you, what are the steps you should take? Let us bear in mind that physical activity is any movement by the body that is considered muscle work and requires more energy than sitting or lying down and resting.  Physical activity may be aerobic physical activity, muscle strengthening physical activity, stretching and bone-strengthening physical activity. It is said that aerobic exercise has the most benefits for your health. Aerobic physical activity is a type of physical activity wherein there is movement of the arms and legs. Examples of aerobic physical activity include walking, biking, jogging, and dancing.

Muscle strengthening physical activities strengthen muscles and builds endurance. Examples of muscle strengthening physical activities include push-ups, sit-ups and climbing stairs. Bone strengthening exercises, on the other hand, enables better support of your body weight and builds strength within bones. Examples of bone-strengthening activities include jumping rope, running and weight-lifting. Stretching exercises can improve the way you move your limbs and joints and your flexibility. Yoga and stretches are examples of stretching physical activities.

Physical activity is also classified as to whether it is light-intensity, moderate-intensity or vigorous-intensity. Light intensity physical activities do not require much effort on your part while moderate-intensity physical activities can cause changes in your heart rate and breathing. Vigorous intensity activities, on the other hand, urge your body systems to work hard and make you almost breathless that you can barely speak a word.

For children, it is recommended that they do about 60 minutes of physical activity every day and should mostly consist of moderate physical activity, such as running, jumping, skipping rope, basketball and other sports. Vigorous intensity activities should be included within 3 days each week, such as running, swimming and jumping jacks.

Adults, on the other hand, need about 2 hours and a half of moderate intensity activities each week. Vigorous physical activities should also be done for 1 hour and 15 minutes each week. More health benefits can be enjoyed for physical activities which are 5 hours or more every week.

If you want to know some more tips on how to stay healthy, feel free to browse other articles on this site.