Sitting is the new smoking! How to enhance your wellbeing by injecting movement into your daily routine

Scientific studies prove that sitting for too long each day can damage your health just as smoking, excess alcohol or unhealthy eating can. Sitting whilst eating, sitting at school, sitting at work and sitting during your free time. Our team here at FITAPP recently read an article which made us sit up and listen, and we would like to share our thoughts on the subject with you.

As the areas of responsibility here at FITAPP increase and our team expands, some of us spend longer sitting at our desks and we have looked at our days as a whole to analyse how often we choose, or indeed are compelled, to sit. We found that people invariably sit when working at a check out, obviously when working in an office, when driving a car, at school during lessons, but also during numerous leisure activities such as watching television. It isn’t helped by the fact that we people often drive when we could walk, take the lift when we could take the stairs, and eat out when we could cook for ourselves.

Children and young adults are particularly affected. Most lessons are spent sitting down and a substantial proportion of free time is spent in front of the TV, the computer or the games console. This structure to a day can become a habit which is then carried on into adult life.

Many people have a negative attitude to smoking, drinking and unhealthy eating, and this is a good thing.

But why, then, is the great sitting marathon which so many people undertake everyday not subject to similar criticism?

We are privileged to have the bodies we have been given; the better we treat them, the longer they will keep us fit and healthy. But what can be done about how much we sit during the day? We should build movement, mobility and stretching into our daily routines. Just as we consider daily hygiene part of our routine, movement should also be standard practice.

Just a few minutes every day can help to improve our mobility and to give us a better sense of well-being. A short, light warm up, followed by bending and stretching is enough to get you started. Make time in the mornings or evenings – you only need 5 minutes and you can build it in to your daily routine.

Try to also remind yourself during the day that too much sitting is bad for you and move around whenever possible. Plan in short stretch breaks, or stand up and walk about for a minute every hour. When you need to do anything that doesn’t have to be done sitting down, do it standing up!

Our motto is not to do anything sitting down if it isn’t absolutely necessary! ☺

We have put together a few tips which have helped our team to sit less and move more:

Use public transport or your bike, or walk to work when you can
Get up for at least one minute every hour during work time and move about
Take the stairs and only use the lift when necessary
Have your meetings standing up
We cook once a week in the office
Team workouts on Fridays strengthen team spirit and it‘s fun!

We hope that we’ve been able to give you food for thought. Tell us what you think or send us your ideas on this sedentary topic!

All the best,
Your FITAPP team

‘One step can make all the difference’

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