Sitting-focused Lifestyle – Would It Be Time To Go To The Gym?

According to several studies on exercise and immobility, as many as 36.8% of the world’s population today have a sedentary lifestyle and do not exercise enough. The worst thing is that the number is growing as it grows: an increasing proportion of the population is living a life that is not active let alone healthy.

In 2018, The Lancet published the results of the above studies, which showed the extent of physical inactivity in Western countries. There were a total of 1.9 million participants in the studies.

On the other hand, according to a recent health and exercise market report, it seems that gym training is now the most common form of exercise in many different countries.

However, according to the above study, a gym is not such a good solution to get people to live a more active life. This is because, despite theoretical advantages, it is not motivating enough, and people do not usually stick to their fitness programs. Also, going to the gym is not enough in itself to fight a sedentary lifestyle.

In other words, going to the gym doesn’t improve our health if we spend all the other time sitting down. A sedentary lifestyle causes twice the number of obesity-related deaths worldwide. It is also associated with a risk of cardiovascular disease that is not dependent on body weight.

Would it be time to go to the gym?

From an overall health standpoint, it seems like going to the gym isn’t as healthy as you might think, because after all, it doesn’t stop you from sitting for long periods of time or even the rest of the day. In addition, many people enthusiastically start a gym workout, but motivation deteriorates over time and going to the gym becomes less frequent and even stops altogether. This can be due to many different reasons, but the end result is most often the same: a complete lack of exercise in life.

How to make a sedentary lifestyle more active

As stated above, a physically passive lifestyle is a problem in all Western countries, and it seems that the gym is not the right solution to change it. Thus, to avoid problems due to physical inactivity, we need to:

• Follow daily physical activity recommendations.
• Try not to sit for long periods of time.

The only sustainable way to change your sedentary lifestyle is to incorporate exercise into your daily routine.

The World Health Organization recommends at least 20 minutes of moderate physical activity per day (150 minutes per week). However, most studies show that the risk of cardiovascular disease is significantly reduced when we take more than 7,500 steps a day, every day. This is about 1 hour and 15 minutes of movement per day. All in all, the more active you are, the healthier you can be (on the other hand, without going overboard!). But we need to get at least the 150 minutes of exercise a week recommended by the World Health Organization.

Here are some tips:

• Whenever possible, choose stairs instead of elevators.
• Cycle or walk on business trips, or if you have to go by bus, for example, get off at the previous stop and walk the rest of the way.
• Go for a walk with the children to the orchard or kindergarten.
• Visit the grocery store on foot or by bike. You can increase physical activity by buying fewer items at a time and shopping more often.
• Whenever it comes to short distances, leave the car at home and go on foot or by bike.
• For longer distances, choose public transport instead of your own car; this way you should at least walk to and from the stop. The environment will thank you too!

• Make household chores like cleaning more fun even by listening to music at the same time, so they should be done more often.
• At the end of the day, take a short walk. This promotes both physical health and psychological well-being.
• Find a fun activity or sport that makes you enjoy exercising. Join an exercise group; hobbying with other people usually maintains motivation better than solitary hobby.

Other strategies to end a sedentary lifestyle

In addition to all of the above, it is important to make certain changes in the workplace, as most of us today work in the office in a sitting position. A more active lifestyle should also become a habit in the workplace, and below we will explain how it works.

Include mobility in your daily routine:

• If possible, try to schedule appointments a little longer from your own room or office. Don’t invite everyone to your room and just sit waiting for them.
• Try to get all co-workers and supervisors interested in the idea of ​​“standing meetings”. Thus, at least shorter meetings could be arranged without chairs. If there are only 4 or fewer people, the meeting could even be arranged on foot!
• If you need to get to talk to a colleague, walk to his desk instead of calling him or asking him every time.
• You may need to do some daily work outside of your workplace. Sprinkle them throughout the day so you should get up from your chair as many times as possible. It would be best to get up for a walk at least every hour.

• Finally, if you can’t concentrate at work, take a short, 5-minute walk outside. It helps activate you as you get both your body moving and fresh air in your lungs. When you return to your workplace, you will surely work more efficiently and your mind will be clear.

Remember that a sedentary lifestyle poses many health risks. While a daily half-hour gym workout or walk is a good exercise, they alone aren’t enough to cover a person’s need for exercise, especially since they stop easily. The real solution is to build an active lifestyle where physical activity is part of our daily routine, both at leisure and at work.