Why is a sedentary lifestyle so dangerous and harmful?

A sedentary lifestyle has become commonplace. With the development of digital technologies and the emergence of a huge number of home-based jobs that require only a computer and the Internet, the phrase "sedentary lifestyle" has become applicable to thousands of remote workers. Office positions are no less dangerous in this regard. How does inactivity affect our health? How can you avoid the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle if you cannot completely abandon it? You will find answers to these and other equally important questions in our article.

What lifestyle is considered sedentary?

Inactivity or physical inactivity is a violation of the body's activity due to insufficient or lack of physical activity.

The problem of a sedentary lifestyle has arisen as a result of scientific and technological progress, urbanization, the spread of communication tools that have simplified our life and replaced active recreation (walks, outdoor games).

Determining whether you are “active” or “inactive” is very simple. If you are not actively moving for at least half an hour during the day, this is considered sedentary. Active movements mean walking, running, physical exercise.

Cleaning and doing normal household chores is not considered an activity. During their implementation, the necessary load is not created on the muscles of the body. When we work around the house, we do the wrong postures that leave many muscle groups unused.

What does a sedentary lifestyle lead to, how is it dangerous?

The consequences of a sedentary lifestyle are far more dangerous than many people think. This is a deterioration in the quality of life and a reduction in its duration.

If you spend 8 hours sitting at your workplace every day and prefer a car ride instead of walking home, you risk living 15-17 years less than those who sit less than 3 hours a day and try to actively move.

Why is a sedentary lifestyle dangerous? Judge for yourself!

1. The first to suffer from immobility is the heart muscle. The lack of active physical movements and cardio loads forces the heart to make less productive contractions, which significantly reduces the tone of the vascular walls.
2. Spine. Sitting, we load it almost twice as much as when we stand or walk.
3. Deterioration of blood circulation in the brain provokes dizziness, tinnitus, fatigue, and a decrease in work productivity.
4. Inactive, muscles lose their tone. This leads to rapid physical fatigue, apathy, a feeling of constant fatigue.
5. Low mobility leads to metabolic disorders. The blood moves more slowly through the body and does not sufficiently saturate cells with oxygen and nutrients.
6. Long sitting in one place provokes stagnation of blood and lymph in the small pelvis, negatively affecting the work of the intestines and genitourinary system.

How does a sedentary lifestyle affect the body from the inside?

Everyday sitting in the office, in transport, at home at the dinner table or on the sofa watching the TV negatively affects not only posture and muscle tone, but also provokes the development of a wide range of diseases.

Diseases of the musculoskeletal system

Those whose work is closely related to sitting at a computer suffer from lumbar and cervical osteochondrosis. Most often, the localization of cervical osteochondrosis is right-sided, since the right hand works with a computer mouse, writes, performs other actions.

Also, "adherents" of a sedentary lifestyle often have intercostal neuralgia, lumbago, sciatica, dizziness and headaches.

Diseases of the cardiovascular system

Slow blood circulation provokes the development of venous insufficiency (varicose veins), thrombosis. Without the proper load, the heart suffers. The heart muscle "gets used" to work at half strength, disrupting the general state of the circulatory system in the body, from which all organs suffer. The likelihood of strokes and heart attacks increases. Life expectancy is reduced.

Overweight

Lack of physical activity, non-observance of the principles of a healthy diet, stress are factors leading to excess weight gain. Sitting in the office, we spend fewer calories than we consume, which gives rise to "beer" bellies, breeches in the thighs, and increases body weight.

According to the forecasts of the medical weekly magazine "The Lancet" by 2025, 20% of the world's population will be overweight, including due to a sedentary lifestyle.

Constipation and hemorrhoids

Violation of intestinal motility, provoked by immobility during the day, leads to chronic constipation. Constipation, in turn, causes another unpleasant disease - hemorrhoids.

If you have prerequisites for constipation, do not let them go into the chronic stage. Warm up, regularly change the position in which you are sitting, swing the abs, massage the abdomen, watch your diet. This will significantly reduce the likelihood of hemorrhoids.

Consequences of a sedentary lifestyle

Sitting at a desk, couch, or dining table for long periods of time does not benefit anyone. Doctors share the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle for men and women.

For men

A sedentary lifestyle negatively affects the prostate. Violation of blood circulation and stagnation of blood flow and lymph in the pelvic organs leads to prostatitis, which, in turn, leads to a decrease in potency. Already today there is a large number of infertile couples due to poor sperm motility and prostatitis. In addition to sexual problems, men leading a sedentary lifestyle are often worried about hemorrhoids.

For women

The same reason - stagnation in the small pelvis - provokes violations in the genital area in women and becomes the cause of uterine pathologies (polyps, endometriosis), as well as painful menstruation.

A general deterioration in well-being against the background of a sedentary lifestyle and frequent stress cause hormonal disorders, mastopathy, ovarian cysts, and menstrual irregularities.

How to avoid the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle?

Even with a clear understanding of the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, you are unlikely to be able to completely get rid of it. Do not quit a promising job in a good office or clients, gained by many years of freelance work? And far from everyone has the opportunity to get to work on foot to compensate for the harm of eight hours of sitting.

What to do? Exercise, nutritional adjustments, and little tricks you can use in your workplace today can help reduce the negative effects of sitting in the workplace.

Physical activity + exercises that can be done right in the workplace

Try to change your body position every 15-20 minutes. Get up from the table more often to stretch, make a couple of bends to the sides, stretch your legs. So the blood in the body will circulate normally.

Exercises you can do while sitting at a table:

1. Sit back and straighten your legs. Bend and unbend your knees 10-15 times each.
2. Straighten your leg, stretch your toe and perform circular movements with the ankle 10-15 times on each leg.
3. Slowly rotate your head clockwise and counterclockwise 5 times.
4. With cervical osteochondrosis, it is advisable not to make rotational movements of the head. Instead, stretch your arms out to the sides and try to reach your left shoulder with your right hand, bringing your right hand behind your head. Do this 15-20 times with one and the other hand, and then 15-20 times with both hands at the same time. Pull the crown of your head up. Try not to tilt your head forward.
5. Do 10 shoulder rolls back and 10 forward.
6. Tighten and relax the muscles of the buttocks 20-25 times.
7. Sitting on a chair, alternately raise and lower your right and left hand 10-15 times.
8. Press one palm against the other and press firmly with your palms against each other. Keep your palms tense several times for 10-15 seconds.
9. Squeeze and unclench your fingers. Stretch with your fingers together.
10. Lower your arms along your body, relax them for a few seconds, shake your hands.
11. Move the chair back, lean forward and bring the shoulder blades together as much as possible. Repeat a few times.
12. Sit on the edge of a chair, straighten and draw in your stomach for a few seconds. Do it at least 50 times.
13. Tear off the socks and heels of your feet one by one.
14. Lift your shoulders up as you inhale, and sharply "throw" them down as you exhale.
15. Move away from the table, straighten your legs and try to reach as much as possible with your fingers to the toes of the shoes.
16. Take off your shoes and roll your glue stick or other round stationery on the floor.

Try to make this workout a “must-have” every day. Don't be afraid to confuse your work colleagues. Remember, preventing the problem is much better than dealing with it. Below is a video to help you have a clearer understanding of gymnastics right on the chair:

Don't forget about morning exercises. Let her become your faithful companion every morning. Table with exercises for morning exercises:

Download the list of exercises here so as not to lose.

Food

In order not to gain excess weight, to always be full of strength and energy, it is important not only to maintain physical activity, but also to monitor nutrition. Sitting on a rigid diet is not an option: since the body already suffers from a lack of activity and a slowed metabolism, strict dietary restrictions will not benefit it.

Four simple dietary guidelines for a sedentary lifestyle:

1. Follow your meal schedule. Eating at the same time disciplines, helps to plan working hours, taking into account the lunch break, and promotes the maximum absorption of nutrients and vitamins from food. All meals, even snacks, should be timed.
2. Eat smaller meals. Get up from the table with the feeling that you have not finished eating a little. The slight feeling that you are hungry is good for the body. Dull it with a healthy snack: banana, nuts, apple, mug of tea. Total meals per day should be at least 5.
3. If you work in an office, remember to have breakfast at home. Breakfast is an important meal for the body. By skipping it, you break the entire diet.
4. Eliminate fast food from your diet. Pizza, burgers, rolls, cakes and other sweets are contraindicated in a sedentary lifestyle. There are too many calories in them, which you simply cannot spend by typing on the keyboard during the day.

More Tips

If getting away from a sedentary lifestyle is not possible, make sure that it does as little harm as possible. Since you spend most of your time sitting at your workplace, consider how to keep yourself physically active while at work.

Three tips for setting up your workplace:

1. Remove excess items that might prevent you from stretching your legs under the table and stretching them during the day.
2. If possible, arrange snacks, tea and lunch not at your workplace, but in a special designated area of ​​the office or in the kitchen. To do this, you, at least, get up from the chair and walk, plus you can stand by the window while drinking tea.
3. Get up out of your chair more often. Even if you have the necessary documents and objects at arm's length, do not drive up to them in a chair and do not ask colleagues to hand them over, but get up and take it yourself.

Conclusion

A sedentary lifestyle in itself cannot be considered a sentence. Having to spend eight hours in the office does not guarantee that you will necessarily have obesity, hemorrhoids, or problems with the cardiovascular system. All this will not happen to you if you monitor your physical activity throughout the day and make it a rule to do exercises. Knowing what a sedentary lifestyle leads to, you will not let this phenomenon of modern life spoil your health.

Watch the video: Sedentary lifestyle can increase risk of cancer, study shows (November 2024).