Sitting is new smoking - Keep Moving

Human body is designed to move and it works best when we are active. Globally, 28% of adults(Age 18 and above) did not meet the world health organization requirement of 150 minutes physical activity per week. We tend to procrastinate the physical activities towards weekend and happily let Monday through Friday suck us in a chair/desk with lot of excuses to avoid physical activity

Well, you live in an era where whatever you eat or breathe has inherent impurities that leads to health issues in the long run. It is super important now than  ever to prioritize health over anything else. 

Sitting is new Smoking

In recent times, you often hear the news that many people who are so healthy with no family heredity of heart or other major health problems die at young age(30 to 55). Do you know what is one of the biggest root cause for these deaths? Surprisingly, most people had a desk job for 12 to 14 hours with no physical activity. Doctors and researchers are alarming young adults with a warning, "Sitting is new Smoking". They recommend to break the sitting regime every 1 hour and have a stretch or walk or just get your body move from sitting. 

What I can do now

Designing frequents breaks irrespective how busy and critical your meetings or work tasks is key to your movement. Is there anything important or valuable than your own health. I bet you know the answer. 

• Stretch 5 to 10 minutes before you start your day
• Stand, Walk or Stretch for 3 to 5 minutes - Every 60 to 75 minutes
• Buy a good desk/chair with is ergonomically fit - Don't go cheap here. Its okay to spend money on you
• Allocate atleast 15 minutes in the evening for a brisk walk, cycling or play with kids 

If you plan to do the above steps, you can easily complete 1 hour of mild activity. Can you not spare 1 hour of your busy 16 hour work schedule for your own benefit. Remember, you are not allocating continuous slot of 1 hour. Just by incorporating small breaks in between your schedule lets you to achieve the daily move goal. I think ,it is completely a doable ask. I will challenge anyone if they cannot spare very small amount of time in between their tasks for a greater benefit.

21 day challenge

What I stated above can be treated as Minimum viable product(MVP). If you don't do anything, just try to maintain the MVP goals. There is not a question of prioritization or negotiation in MVP goals. What is the easiest way to take something simple like MVP into a strict regime that is super beneficial for our body. I call this as a 21 day challenge. Tag with friends who have same interests. Pick something simple that you can do for more than 60 minutes continuously. Start a whatsapp or friends group to post your simple activities in that group of friends and challenge each other. For humans to feel good, they need motivation and successful outcome. It might be hard for few weeks but what science says is, if you practice enough on consistent basis for 3 weeks, you will have self motivation to continue that for a longer time. 

Weekend Regime

• 60 to 90 minutes of mild to medium activity
• Increase the intensity every 4 weeks by 5 to 10 minutes of higher intensity.(Be it walk or run or cycle or hiking or any other workout)

Finally, Science says that you will get additional 10 to 11 years of life as base pay for remaining mildly active plus bonus of not overspending future medicare expenses.For most of us who are running like a horse and working your bud off without focusing on health, this is your chance to fix. I hope this small article provides some motivation to prioritize you vs work.