About: Aaron Goacher

If you sit whilst at work you are increasing your risk of physical injury and diseases.

Yes, sitting for a prolonged period of time is killing you, without you even realising.

Does this sound like your average work day?:

• 6+ hours sitting (whether at a desk, commuting in a meeting)
• Low intensity physical activity (Walking around the office, short distance movements, bending/kneeling)
• 30+ Minutes moderate to vigorous physical exercise (Gym/workout/cycling).

If this is similar to your day, read on, I’ll show you 5 easy things you can do to up your daily physical activity without decreasing productivity and hours spent in the gym or running.

How does sitting harm your body?

As soon as you sit down your calorie burning capacity drops significantly, shutting off electrical activity in your leg muscles, and enzymes that help break down fat drop by 90%.

What does that mean to you?

It makes it harder to maintain a healthy weight due to a decrease in energy (calories) used throughout your day. Overtime you will increase your body weight, body fat percentage and muscle atrophy (muscle loss).

With electrical activity in your leg muscles shutting off as soon as you sit down, the biggest muscles in your body are effectively turned off, leading to muscle atrophy in your legs, increasing your chance of injury, pain referral to your hips, legs and feet.

Blood often pools in the lower legs due to lack of movement, resulting in numbness and some cases varicose veins.

A prolonged time in a seated position has many negative effects on the body, being linked to diabetes, poor mental health, increased stress, lower back/neck pain and more harmful health effects.

30 minutes of physical exercise every day isn’t enough, your 5k run, jumping on the bike at the gym and HIIT class for half an hour isn’t going to make a drastic change to the hours you spent in a seated position.

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Here’s 5 easy things you can do at work to keep your body fit and healthy and reverse the adverse effects of prolonged sitting.

1 – Walk around the office often. Every 30-45 minutes get up and walk, move, stretch for 5 minutes.

2 – Take the stairs. Seems simple, but every set of stairs that you confront each day, walk up and down them.

3 – Walking Meetings. Whether you are office or remote based, take your meeting on walks, can you take notes on your phone if meeting is over zoom? With a colleague, record the conversation and use a transcribe app to take notes.

4 – Standing Desk. A standing desk will allow you to change position multiple times throughout the day, standing whilst working allows for more body movement and creativity. (It takes time to adapt from sitting to standing all day, take it in small intervals to start – I’d also recommend taking your shoes off to move your feet too!).

5 – Mobility Exercises. These movements can be slow, intense and move your muscles and joints effectively, without having loads of space to move and distracting your colleagues. (Tell your boss this amazing hack and make it a team activity every hour!)

I hope this has helped you realise the negative effects of sitting for too long during your work day.

Sitting will kill you slowly. That retirement that you are working for, if you don’t move your body now, it won’t want to move then.

I have trained and treated 100’s of individuals who suffer with pain and discomfort from injuries that could of been prevented through movement.

Get in contact with Aaron if you want to learn how to move better, create a healthier lifestyle and be stronger.