These days many of us have jobs where we literally sit at a desk for eight or more hours a day. While we might love our job, a recent medical study showed that this type of sedentary job has the potential to be as detrimental to the human body as smoking, even for those who still work out every day. While people don’t have to smoke, they do have to work, so what are these millions of workers to do about improving their health? Here are some easy ways to add a little bit of activity to our sedentary days.
If you are the industrious type who spends an hour each day working out, you definitely should still be enjoying this important activity. However, you can break up your workout and consider working out for a half-hour in the morning, going for a brisk walk at lunch and then doing another half-hour of exercise in the evenings. This will help get your heart rate up several times during the day, a sort of simplified interval training. This, of course, might not be convenient, but most of us can probably at least spend 10 or even 15 minutes taking a walk outside during our lunch break.
If you work at home, consider getting up every hour and investing five minutes in some simple exercises. You can take a short walk, do some jumping jacks or invest in a small rebounder trampoline and bounce for a few minutes. Basically, you want to get up and get your heart rate up a bit and spend some time focusing on breathing and stretching. Not only will this benefit your heart health, it keeps your muscles warm, and you won’t feel as stiff and inflexible.
For those who work in an office, there are definitely some ways to increase activity. In addition to taking a short walk at lunch, get up every hour or so and walk around. If you have to go to another floor, take the stairs. When you head to the bathroom, select the restroom the farthest away from your desk, and if it is on another floor, that is even better. You can park as far away from the front door of your office as possible to increase your walking time.
Most of us probably would enjoy spending our weekends sleeping in and resting on the couch, but the weekend offers us a huge opportunity for some fun exercise and activities. Take a bike ride or fly a kite and play at the park with your children. Gather up your friends for an informal softball or kickball game or take a long walk on the beach. Even if you will be spending the weekend watching sports, spend the commercial breaks doing some quick exercise. You can jog in place during one commercial and do jumping jacks during the next and then try to fit in some lunges or sit ups.
When muscle pain is keeping you from doing any of this exercise, rather than simply do nothing, consider using a device such as a physiological hybrid shape. These are unique shapes that adhere to the skin, covering a sore area. The design not only protects your sore muscle, it draws strength from nearby muscle groups which improves your range of motion and lessens your pain. There are several types of hybrid shapes, include shapes designed just for the upper back, the lower back and the shoulder, the knee and elbows.
Kamryn Mattson likes writing about health topics. For more info about a pain relief product, or to find a lower back support product, please check out the RapidForce website today.
