At-Your-Desk Exercises to Prevent Your Sitting Job from Killing You.

By: Dr. Peggy Malone 

In my duties as a health and wellness television correspondent on this week’s episode of Inside Elgin, I am sharing some tips on how to get your body moving more when you are required to sit still.  As a result, I thought I would revisit a subject that I have shared in the past.

Sitting Can Kill You.

We have discussed often that the human body is designed to move.  It is designed to run and jump and hunt and gather.

In our modern world, instead of doing those things, we are instead rewarded for doing something that can cause injury and illness and even death….sitting still.

What?  Death?!?  I must be exaggerating right?

Well not really.

The negative effects on your body and your health from sitting still in a chair are more severe than you might think.

Let’s look at how sitting still relates to your health and how it can potentially kill you.

A 2009 study by Dr Peter Katzmarzyk and colleagues showed that the more time spent sitting was associated with an increased risk dying from any cause and risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was also increased. 

The interesting thing about this study was that it showed that those increased risks of dying were independent of how much a person exercised!  Even after controlling for age, smoking, and physical activity levels, the people who sat the most were 50% more likely to die in the follow up period than those who sat the least.

So what this means in simple terms is that all things being equal, the person who sits the most will be more at risk of dying than the person who sits the least.

Hence, sitting can kill you.

Ok, so obviously that is bad news.

The good news is that you can do something about it!

In the following 4 minute video that I recorded after I got back from a business conference several months ago, I give some really practical tips on how you can get your body moving more when you have some life circumstance that requires you to sit still in a chair.

Even a little bit of movement will be helpful to keep your body a little happier and healthier, so once you have finished watching the video and reading this post…..get up and get moving!

Live Well,

Peggy

Leave me a comment below and let me know how you add more movement into your day!

Dr. Peggy Malone is a Chiropractor and an Athlete who helps other athletes to overcome injury and get back to their sport. Her weekly Television Series 'Living Well" inspires people from all walks of life to take control of their health to be as happy and as healthy as they can be.

A former varsity Basketball and Rugby player, she has since entered the world of endurance athletics where she has completed 2 Ironman Triathlons, 3 Marathons, several Half Marathons and many other Triathlons, Road Races and Off-Road Adventure races of varying distances.

Her own athletic endeavors and injuries have given her valuable insight into working with athletes in her practice for both the care of injuries as well as for the improvement of athletic performance.