Are You Sitting Too Much? Tips for Getting Off Your Butt!

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So it seems recent studies are suggesting that sitting too much could offset any benefits of exercise. More study needs to be done, but some scientists are proposing that every hour of sitting upped the rate of metabolic syndrome by 26%, while 30 minutes of exercise dropped the rate of metabolic syndrome by that much — thereby canceling out the effect of the exercise.

In some ways, this doesn’t surprise me at all. The human body isn’t made for sitting at a desk, in front of a computer for hours on end. Yet that’s what I do. And I bet you do, too. Now, it doesn’t mean that you need to be jogging and lifting weights all day, but you need to avoid sitting for long periods of time during the day.

Here are some ways you can get up off your duff, at work and at home:

Metabolic Syndrome
According to WHO, the main criteria of metabolic syndrome (aka syndrome X, insulin resistance syndrome) is an individual with high insulin levels, abdominal obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Get yourself a kitchen timer and set it to go off every 30 minutes. Get up, move around, and stretch for five minutes once the timer goes off. Or, if you’re at work, create an appointment with a reminder on your calendar;keep snoozing the reminder for 30 minutes.
At work, walk over to your co-worker’s office instead of using the phone or e-mail. Take the long way on purpose or even walk up and down a couple of flights of stairs.
Sign up for a pingfit.com account. Install this baby (it’s free) and you’ll be reminded to do a particular exercise every 20 minutes.
If you’re watching TV (and I can’t convince you to turn it off), M-O-V-E during commercial breaks instead of flipping through the channels, waiting for your show to come back on.
Consider getting an exercise ball chair and engage your core muscles and improve your balance while sitting, instead of plain, old sitting.

And, really, do we need a study to tell us to do this? I don’t know about you, but I know I feel better when I’m away from my computer. So, stop sitting in one place for hours on end for a better, healthier you. (And I bet your butt will end up looking nicer, too! )