Get Moving! So Many Chairs Are Killing You

The human body is designed to move. We have more than 360 joints and about 700 skeletal muscles that allow us easy and fluid movement. We have a unique physical structure that enables us to stand up against the force of gravity.

Blood depends on our movement to circulate properly and our nerve cells benefit from the activity.

Get active to gain physical and psychological health

The movement has been present in all our daily tasks and challenges necessary for survival since our origins, but the ways of life of the technological and wealthy society have submerged us in sedentary habits that can be our grave.

Leave sedentary life behind

If we review the life of any person in our society we see that, after leaving the hospital where the mother has given birth, the child is transferred in a chair or in the car, takes its first steps with a walker and eats sitting in a high chair. And when he is old enough to go to school, he is forced to spend long hours glued to a chair and a table to carry out school activities.

This way of life will continue as an adult in the workplace, especially if you work in an office, spend long hours in front of a computer and your leisure consists of putting yourself in front of a screen.

If we take into account that we normally travel by car or public transport to the workplace, that with a call they can serve us food at home or that we can make purchases online without having to move from the chair, our possibilities of movement are each time minors.

During childhood and adolescence, in addition, the excess of schoolwork typical of current educational systems reduces the time for sports or the movement generated by the game that previous generations did.

Children’s bodies and minds are tied to the seat. Not counting the time they spend, and we spend, sitting looking at the mobile.

We live in the society of immobility

Today we only spend a third of our time on our feet, which has sounded the alarm to the World Health Organization (WHO). It has already identified physical inactivity as the fourth leading cause of death on the planet, even ahead of obesity, and experts do not stop talking about the damages of lack of movement in books, television programs or conferences, supported by studies physicians published in prestigious scientific journals.

Everyone compares a sedentary lifestyle to a time bomb capable of causing, apart from obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancers such as colon and endometrium, muscle and back problems, deep vein thrombosis, brittle bones, depression and dementia.

A problem similar to tobacco in the 1980s, when everyone knew that it was harmful to health but did not realize the extent of its effects.

Get moving, exercise!

According to the WHO, an adult should get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week or 30 minutes in at least 5 days. A recent study published in The Lancet found that the health impact of an eight-hour workday in front of a computer or in a car can be alleviated by activities such as cycling, at speeds of more than 10 miles / hour, or walking. quickly at 5.6 km / hour for more than 60 minutes every day.

Many health problems are brewing in the chair

The real problem with sitting still is sitting for long hours, day after day, in the same position, a habit that makes us sick in different ways. Let’s see how.

Sitting at the work table with a curved back and drooping shoulders, as we commonly do, puts uneven pressure on the spine.

Over time, this posture wears down the spinal discs, overloads some ligaments and joints, and puts pressure on the muscles, which stretch to accommodate the curved position of the back.

Poor movement of the abdominal muscles and keeping the back muscles tight causes hyperlordosis, an exaggeration of the vertebral arch.

Sitting for hours puts pressure on and squeezes the muscles, nerves, arteries, and veins that make up the soft tissue layers of the buttocks and legs, leaving them flabby, which can damage our stability and ability to walk at a steady pace. .

In the most compressed areas, nerves, arteries, and veins can become blocked, limiting nerve signals, and reducing blood flow. This can lead to numbness in the limbs, swelling, varicose veins, and even deep vein thrombosis.

Protect your bones

The stiffness of the muscles and joints makes us lose flexibility and reduces movements. On the other hand, our bones, while we keep moving, widen and strengthen to facilitate activity, but when we are inactive for hours they weaken. Then problems such as osteoporosis can appear.

Losing fat burning ability

Sitting for long periods of time has another effect linked to obesity and its related diseases: it deactivates lipoprotein lipase, a special enzyme in the walls of blood capillaries that breaks down fats in the blood.

When we sit down, we don’t burn fat and calories as well as when we move, thereby gaining weight. It may even cause our cholesterol levels to skyrocket or we may develop diabetes.

Increases the likelihood of some cancers

Sitting for long hours slows down the digestive processand lengthens the exposure to possible carcinogens in the digestive tract. This leads to a greater extent to colon cancer, for example, as different studies have shown.

In addition, the higher concentration of hormones such as insulin and estrogen, as well as certain growth factors, influence, among other things, an increased risk of developing endometrial cancer in women.

On the other hand, not doing physical activity increases inflammation.

Prevent depression

At the brain level, despite the fact that today it is understood that intellectual work or concentration is gained in a calm position and sitting at a table, in reality sitting for long hours reduces blood flow and the amount of oxygen that enters the brain. blood stream from the lungs, especially if instead of sitting with a straight spine we do it hunched over.

Moving stimulates the pumping of blood and oxygen through the brain, which releases endorphins, chemicals that influence good mood and concentration.

When sitting for a long time, brain function declines, concentration and mood decline. Depression occurs more easily.