It’s no secret that living a sedentary lifestyle can have a tremendously negative effect on your overall health, particularly in the long run. But sometimes, it can be hard to determine whether you’ve fallen into a sedentary lifestyle if you don’t fully understand what “sedentary” entails. This is especially true if you consider yourself fairly healthy, and your health records look good on paper.
A sedentary lifestyle is one that involves little to no physical activity. To help you determine whether you should make some changes to your routine, think about your day to day movements. Do you sit all day while working and then watch television at night? How often do you go for a walk or how often are you up on your feet?
Exercise helps all of your body’s systems operate at their greatest capacity. Physical fitness allows you to maintain a healthy body weight, healthy heart, and can even reduce anxiety and depression. By exercising, you’re building up your body’s aerobic power, which makes it possible for your muscles to facilitate the process of converting oxygen from your lungs and heart into energy.
Educate Yourself
One of the biggest reasons that people choose to stay comfortable with their sedentary lifestyles is that they cannot see the long-term health implications that inactivity can have on the mind, body, and spirit. There are ample studies that prove the effectiveness of exercise on your health, and conversely, the detrimental—and sometimes deadly—effects of being sedentary for far too long.
This isn’t intended to scare you, but to help you understand that remaining passive physically will only hurt you, and this shouldn’t be regarded as an opinion, but as a scientifically proven fact. The more that you educate yourself, the more you’ll understand the importance of fitting exercise into your everyday lifestyle.
The Sitting Disease
A sedentary lifestyle is aptly regarded as a “sitting” disease. The American Heart Association found that since 1950, sedentary jobs in America have increased by 83%. Furthermore, sitting for long periods of time is associated with different types of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. If you are sitting for more than 10 hours per day, your risk of cardiovascular disease goes up. Keep track of your steps and pay particular attention to how much you’re sitting to ensure you are remaining balanced.
Starting Small
To keep physically active, all it takes is 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week or 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week. If you choose 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, this could look like a simple 30 minute walk Monday through Friday, or any five days of the week.
Although the aforementioned exercise tips are the bare minimum, they may be best for you if you’re just starting out. To help you avoid missing a day or skipping a session, create a fitness schedule and put in a place where it’s visible and you can hold yourself accountable for it. If you don’t want to do 30 minutes at once, look for breaks in your existing schedule where you might be able to take ten minutes here and there.
You can also search for pockets of time where it’s possible to add in some physical activity. For example, you might park further from work so you can get a walk in, or use the stairs instead of the elevator. It helps to have a goal; for example, you might want to tone your butt or tighten your abs quicker.
If you find it very difficult to work out alone, opt for exercise classes that combine fitness and socialization in a group setting. Doing so can boost your motivation and make exercise a more enjoyable experience for you, and there are plenty of online and offline exercise classes to choose from.
Harness the Post Exercise Feeling
The fact is, most people aren’t “gym heads” and are therefore not excited to start working out. Often, it feels like a daunting task that needs to be checked off the to-do list. But when you think of exercising and are searching for motivation, don’t think about the pre-workout feelings—think about the way you feel when exercising is done. Because most people who finish an exercise session don’t regret the psychical activity they put in and feel much better about themselves afterwards.