Nowadays, with the digitalization of almost everything, we are condemned to spend most of our day sitting. People sit at their jobs, sit while hanging out with friends and sit while browsing the web in search of a new promo for Starspins. An unhealthy lifestyle followed with a lack of physical activity is the main cause of health issues of our generation.
What follows are medical conditions such as obesity, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and even orthopedic or neurological problems. Try some of the exercises from our small list to undo the damage that is caused by sitting all day.
Stretching
You probably won’t be able to tell, but at times when you are feeling pressure on a certain body part, you will immediately start stretching. Stretching is really important as a part of any physical activity, but it can also be beneficial if you are not physically active!
Spending a lot of time in a sitting position will cause your muscles to debilitate, which will consequently weaken your ligaments and even influence the density of your bones. Furthermore, your circulatory system also suffers as being locked in an unnatural position (sitting) interferes with normal blood flow. By having a good stretch, you help your blood circulate through the entire body and oxygen is delivered to your muscles.
All of this can be solved with some moderate physical activity. However, if you are not the type to go hiking, swimming or to the gym every day, you can at least include some stretching into your daily routine. Make a pause every 30 minutes to one hour if you spend more than 5 hours per day sitting and stretch your muscles.
Some of the things you can do are shoulder stretches, hamstring stretches, quadriceps stretches, and lower back stretches. These will make you feel some relief and make sitting bearable.
Jogging/Walking
When we are walking, we are activating multiple muscles and tendons which will improve blood circulation, maintain your body fats low and keep you in good shape! This will improve the quality of your lifestyle and decrease the quality of damage done to your body by sitting all day long!
Most of us have a day job that includes a lot of sitting. Luckily, by organizing your time and having a good amount of willpower you can solve this problem. If you can, choose to walk or jog your way to work and back to activate your whole body and become fit.
This way you will mitigate the damage done to your blood vessels and your muscles as well. In addition, you will lose a few pounds and become more agile than before!
Abs exercise
Include different types of abs workouts in your daily routine to help you alleviate the tension you feel in your spine. Bad posture caused by an unnatural sitting position, low-quality chair, and lower desk than you actually need can all lead up to serious physical problems like chronic back pain and degenerative disc disease.
By focusing on abs workouts, you can strengthen your core. This will help you sit straight and lessen the pain in your back area. It will also diminish the negative impact sitting has on your body.
The most important part is that abs workouts take just a little bit of your precious time. In order to do these exercises, you will need to spare approximately 10-15 minutes a day.