Not long ago, a landmark study declared that “Sitting is the New Smoking!” While the reality isn’t quite as bad as the study made it sound, it’s no secret that Americans sit too much. Even if the research team oversold their results slightly, their message was an important one.
One of the side effects of that study was the sudden surge in standing desks and other office solutions that encouraged less sitting.
While those products are helpful at the margins, the simple truth is this: Using a standing desk is no substitute for exercising. It’s marginally better than sitting in your chair all day, but a staggering 40 percent of Americans don’t get a meaningful amount of exercise on any given week. That’s the core problem, and until it changes, our country is going to continue to struggle with its obesity epidemic.
The good news is that adding exercise to your daily routine is easy and painless. We recommend starting small. Park farther away from your office door or the door to any big box stores you visit and walk the length of the parking lot. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Any time your co-workers take a smoke break, you take a health break and do a lap or two around the building. Before you sit down in the easy chair at home, take a stroll around the block.
None of these things take very long and none of them will really feel like exercising, but they’ll have a bigger impact than you might imagine. Every couple of weeks, you can add a little bit more to your slowly budding routine.
Before you know it, you’ll be spending twenty or thirty minutes a day doing low intensity exercises and that will make a tremendous difference to your overall level of health! Start today, try it for yourself and see. You’ll be amazed at the results.
