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I cut off my Christmas/New year holiday for an emergency corporate training in Ilorin. I woke up the morning after the training to a terrible excruciating back pain – my first thought went to the 2-day long stretch training then to the mattress at Kwara Hotels and finally to the partial insomnia I experienced the day before. 5 doses of 100mg Cataflam later, my wife suggested the cause to be an accumulation of sitting down. I laughed it off at first but I realized that it could be true – apart from training, I realized that 95% of what I do involves sitting down.

These are the stats I got from my research:

The contemporary lifestyles encourages sitting down from working on the computers, playing games to watching TVs.

1. Sitting increases risk of death up to 40%

Sitting 6+ hours a day makes you likely to die within 15 years than someone who sits less than 3 even if you exercise.

Those who sit 3hrs or more per day watching TV are 64% more likely to die of heart disease. It makes no difference even if you exercise. Each extra hour of watching TV = 11%  higher death risk.

1. Sitting makes us fat

Obese people sit for 2.5 more hours per day than thin people. Sitting expends no energy.  You body goes into meltdown the moment you sit.

Note that sitting time adds up whether you are at your desk working or in a car.

1. People with sitting jobs have twice the rate of cardiovascular diseases as people with standing jobs.

As soon as you sit, electrical activity in the leg muscles shut off. Calorie burning drops to 1 per minute. Enzymes that help break fat drop 90%. After 2 hours, good cholesterol drops 20%. After 24hrs, insulin effectiveness drop hence diabetes creeps in.

Solution

The recommended 30mins activity per day is not enough – interrupt sitting whenever you can. Walking burns 3-5 times the activities that sitting does – Take every opportunity to walk around the office.

References

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17sitting-t.html?_r=0

http://news.yahoo.com/too-much-sitting-kill-study-suggests-200408243.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57474678/why-sitting-all-day-is-killing-you/

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2012/07/07/sitting-is-killing-you-the-truth-about-sitting-down/

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/career/sitting-at-your-desk-could-be-killing-you/4671

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/24/sitting-at-work-why-its-dangerous-alternatives_n_1695618.html

http://lifehacker.com/5800720/the-sitting-is-killing-you-infographic-illustrates-the-stress-of-prolonged-sitting-importance-of-getting-up