Five minutes of wellness for busy professionals who sit four or more hours a day online course
Do you suffer from lower back pain? Do you feel tension on your shoulders and neck? Or you might feel uninspired or tired all the time. Do you feel stress and anxiety, or have negative thoughts? Is hard for you to stay motivated? These are just a few of the effects of sitting too much which cannot be magically undone only from regular exercise?
Extra weight, blood clots, cardiovascular disease, and heart attack are just a few major complications of sedentary behaviour.
A daily routine is important for our own health and well-being as even though we go regularly to exercise classes or strength training exercises which will help to manage stress reduction and have more positive emotions and healthy life, still, scientists discovered that the effects of prolonged sitting cannot be undone. Internal medicine will always help, however, let's see how we can prevent it all together so we can go to a healthier destination faster.
Welcome to Five minutes wellness for busy professionals who sit four and more hours a day online course or your Office Yogis Guide. In this course, you will learn easy-to-follow and adapt in your work and private lives practical tips to keep your body and mind healthy and stress-free. We will learn how can break sitting for long periods.
Effects of long sitting
We will first look at the effects of a sedentary lifestyle and how they affect your overall health. We will identify the negative habits that developed through the years and if you have previous experience with slouched shoulders, you will learn how to improve your posture.
We will look at how we can gradually increase the energy levels with health guidelines so can have even energy expenditure. Also, will look at the benefits of changing negative habits into positive ones and how much physical activity we need to make a positive impact which will lead to reduced stress and improve your health.
Then we will learn easy tools totally accessible even to the busiest schedule. With this course, time will be no more an issue and you will have more energy and a health guide to look after your health.
Health benefits:
*To identify negative habits from a modern or sedentary behaviour
* To learn about the risk factors of uninterrupted screen time and sitting too much
*Eye exercises to keep your eyes healthy
*How to stand and sit in a supportive way and undo the sedentary time( or sitting for long periods)
*Free PDF eBook you can check on the go and a Wellness Plan
Physical activity:
-To improve your health through simple physical activity
-To help with lower back and hip pain and tight hamstring muscles
-Simple exercise program, which doesn't take more than 5 minutes of physical activity
Mental health:
-To be more focused and productive
-To increase creativity
-To improve mood
-To improve your mental health
-To build a self-care routine
The research
Research shows regular breaks (every half hour) and a short walk during the lunch break are key to a healthy lifestyle, reducing stress, and bringing more energy into daily life. And we all want to reduce ill health and stay healthy. We will have a systematic review of sitting too much and its health effects and look at the research.
Scientists first noticed the relationship between long periods of sitting and the health effect quite some time ago in a study that compared two similar groups: transit drivers, who sit most of the day, and conductors or guards, who don’t. Even though their diets and lifestyles were a lot alike, those that sat were about twice as likely to get heart disease as those that stood. Coming closer to the present days, the latest scientific studies have shown that sitting for a long period regularly can reduce life expectancy or lead to early death.
Sedentary behaviour (from the Latin sedere - 'to sit') is the term now used to categorize those behaviours for which we use less energy like prolonged sitting when travelling, at work, at home when watching tv and in leisure time. High amounts of sedentary time have been associated with increased risks of several chronic conditions. Below are outlined some of the negative effects:
Slow metabolism
Too much sitting is thought to slow the metabolism, which affects the body's ability to regulate blood sugar, and blood pressure and break down body fat. Sitting for longer than 30 minutes can put your body into a more relaxed, and less energy-burning state.
Tiredness
According to the NHS, excessive sitting can sap your energy, even if you're watching TV or using the computer. And you know how import is to keep your energy levels even throughout the day.
Your body equates the stillness with going to sleep, or in other words that stillness sends a signal to your brain and the body starts to shut down. Like human beings we can wonder, how can we be so tired when we have not done anything (here we refer to exercise).
We somehow forget the mental activity we are doing. Using our brains takes a lot of our energy and we might not see it in the same way as we do when we are performing physical work or exercise, but it is there.
Mental fatigue is real, and we have experienced it and we all. In one research scientists say that in the average adult human, the brain represents about 2% of the body weight. Remarkably, despite its relatively small size, the brain accounts for about 20 per cent of the oxygen and, hence, calories consumed by the body.
Tips: stretching often, getting up, and walking away from your desk or standing desk. Frequent breaks will help keep you awake and will give your eyes a rest.
Heart problems
Blood flow slows down, which allows fatty acids to build up in the blood vessels and this can lead to heart disease and medical emergency as a heart attack.
One large study about the dangers of sitting (even when watching television) involved 800,000 people. This study, published in 2011 and run by Loughborough University and the University of Leicester in the UK, showed that people who sit the most, when compared to those who sat the least, had an increase in disease and death, specifically:
They had a 147 per cent increase in cardiovascular events, like heart attacks and strokes.
They had a 90 per cent increase in death from cardiovascular events.
As you can see physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour have a high risk for your health and this is not anymore in older adults only, younger folks are not rare cases anymore.
Back pain
You don't need Harvard health publishing to tell you that, the seated position puts huge stress on your back muscles, neck, and spine. It could even get worse if you have a poor posture or slouch. Often people with sedentary lifestyles start to experience a bad back from the early years of their professional life.
The reason is when we sit the vertebral disks are getting compressed. Think about how the disks in between the vertebrae are being squashed. The disk function is to allow the movement of the spine to happen with ease and they work as shock absorbents.
More than one in three adults say back pain impacts everyday activities, including sleep, and no matter how comfortable you get, your back still won’t like too much sitting.
In the UK, low back pain was identified as the most common cause of disability in young adults imposing a high economic burden on individuals, families, communities, industry, and governments.
Neck Strain
Around one in ten people suffer from neck strain. I have seen many professionals who come to my classes suffering from neck strains. There is no surprise that as many people strain to see a computer that is too far away, too low, too high, too small, or too dim or other devices like tablets and smartphones at home.
All the above compromise good posture. Have you tried lifting a bowling ball? Well, you don’t have to, even though I did, and I can assure you it is quite heavy. The average human head weighs almost 12 pounds (5.4 kilograms) — the equivalent of a bowling ball!
When your neck is bent at a wrong angle going too forwards, for instance, your head puts nearly 50 pounds of force on your neck. Moreover, from straining joints and muscles in your neck and shoulders, the pressure affects your breathing and mood.
Our wellbeing and healthy living should be our primary care companion and the whole office culture should be oriented to help their employees have a healthy lifestyle and even energy levels throughout the day and have healthy guidelines And even though many gyms offer corporate membership if you are someone who sits 4 hours and more a day, the gym won't be enough for your health.
Weight
Weight gain can cause many illnesses. When you spend a lot of time sitting, digestion is not as efficient, so you retain the fats and sugars as fat in the body. Moving your muscles helps your body digest the fats and sugars you eat. Also, you burn around 30% more calories when you’re standing than when you’re sitting. However, even if you exercise, but spend a large amount of time sitting, you are still risking health problems and even death.
More than two-thirds of the mid-age population in developed countries like the UK, the USA, and Australia is now overweight or obese, which increases significant health risks for this generation. Our body mass index could be a good guideline.
Tight Hips
Research suggests prolonged sitting causes your hip flexor muscles to shorten, which can lead to problems with your hip joints. Besides, this causes less mobility which later in life could cause instability.
Hamstring muscles
Sitting too much leads also too tight hamstrings which might increase the risk of back pain.
Diabetes
Probably you think, oh no Diabetes too. And it isn’t only because you burn fewer calories. It isn’t clear why, but doctors think sitting may change the way your body reacts to insulin, the hormone that helps to burn sugar and carbs for energy. We can see how sitting might be connected and increase the risk of diabetes (increased insulin resistance).
Deep vein thrombosis
Deep vein thrombosis is a blood clot that could form in your leg and often is because you sit still for a long time. Even though you might notice swelling and pain, some people have no symptoms, and it can be serious if the clot breaks free or if we are talking about pulmonary embolism. That is why it’s a good idea to stay healthy to break up long sitting sessions and exercise regularly.
Tip: As we all know we might get carried away, so it is a good idea to set an alarm on your phone to remind you to get up and shake each leg at a time.
Try also standing desks (or treadmill desk) and if you can take the phone calls and conference calls standing so you can still enjoy your desk job without putting yourself at risk. A good idea will be to have an ergonomic chair, so long period of sitting can be also supported. Even though there is no direct link to colon cancers and in general cancer risk with prolonged sitting, it could be argued that good metabolism and less stress will influence it positively.
Varicose veins
Varicose veins(in early-stage spider veins) can be formed not only from standing for too much but also from sitting for long periods of time.
Long periods of time sitting can put you at greater risk increasing the chance of deep vein thrombosis, and varicose veins.