Whether it’s weight gain, poor heart health, mood troubles, or muscle atrophy, spending too much time on your keester can mess up your health.
Sitting may also have a damaging effect on your bones. For your bones to stay strong, they need to be under some stress. When you offload your weight from your natural body structure to a chair or sofa, your bones are simply left to weaken.
When bones get weak, trouble can follow. The risk for osteoporosis can increase, as can your susceptibility for a bone break. Too much sitting can also impact your bones indirectly by limiting balance and strength. When the risk for falls increases, so does the danger to your bones.
Getting up and more active, on the other hand, can pay big dividends for bone strength. When you’re up and moving your bones have no choice but to support you, pushing them to get stronger and denser.
Supplementing your activity with calcium can add even more benefits to bone health.
Not all activity is created equal. As mentioned, you want it to be load-bearing. Cycling, sitting, and using a foot pedal or swimming won’t have a positive impact. Walking, jogging, dancing, and resistance training will.
It can be hard to avoid sitting in some cases. If you have a desk job and a long commute, it can be really difficult. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Try and get up for a walk once an hour. Head to the bathroom or check in with a colleague. Just get up and move. It’s also recommended to schedule some dedicated exercise time into your day. A walk during breaks or before or after work is a great idea.
Your bones want you to get up and move. The more bone strength you have now, the less you’ll have to worry about trouble in the future.