Do You Want To Be Healthy? Stop Sitting and Start Walking

Most people’s New Year’s resolutions list include some form of fitness. Come end of January though, many of us find themselves falling off the resolutions wagon and rather discouraged. One of the reasons is that in case of getting fit and boosting one’s health, whether through diet, exercise or any other good-for-you habits, setting lofty goals may work against all those good intentions.

Which is why walking as a form of exercise may be one of the best activity there is. Not only is it low impact, but it can be done in a group (hence you can keep each other accountable) and it can be done every day with no other equipment than a pair of comfortable shoes and warm clothing (think layers, because walking will increase the body temperature.)

Many studies have now showed that the average person sits for than 10 hours a day (more or less, depending on the kind of job and lifestyle habits) and, as mentioned in our previous post about a healthy work space, prolonged sitting leads to a combination of chronic ill effects such as high blood pressure, increased risk of diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

On the other hand, regular walking (think at least 30 minutes five days a week) helps the body with the following: keeping body weight in check, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels, decreasing depression and anxiety, promoting better circulation and healthier lungs.

The explanation behind the ill effects of sitting rely in the way the human body is built and in how it has been conditioned over many thousands of years of active living (out of necessity that is). When the body is inactive for a long time, its systems enter a state of conservation, a well-designed mechanism meant to protect resources when not needed. The problems arise when during prolonged sitting, the blood flow decreases in areas that are not used, and nutrients (sugar and fats) that are usually used for energy production are stored, leading to chronic health problems.

Committing to daily walking is one of the best things you can do for yourself and doing it with friends or family means that you will have helped more than just one person get healthier. Aside from regular walking, if your job involves a lot of sitting, here’s what you can do to counteract the ill effects of it:

• Use some or most of your lunch break for a walk. Ditto for coffee breaks
• Walk a few blocks to and from work and, if using public transportation, get off a couple of stops before your destination
• Get up at least once every 30 minutes even if all you do is stretch and/or move your body to get your blood flow going everywhere
• Read your body’s signals: if your extremities get cold or stiff while, move a bit. Get used to constantly adjusting your body position just to keep your muscles in motion rather than sit motionless for hours.