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SALT LAKE CITY — Recent surveys show the dangers of living a sedentary lifestyle. But with work and all of the other things in our lives we have to sit for, how can we find the time to get moving?
The article published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked closely at the effects of the sedentary lifestyle on the human body. Researchers especially looked at how much time people sit and watch TV. In the end, they found that, "Time spent in sedentary behaviors was positively associated with mortality."
But, let's face it. A lot of us do a lot of sitting around at work. It's part of the job.
Let's face it. A lot of us do a lot of sitting around at work. It's part of the job.
(In fact, you're sitting down right now, aren't you? Well, in the spirit of full disclosure, I am, too.)
Then, at the end of work day, a lot of us go home and plop in front of the TV, too tired to move after our long day of sitting down. Certified personal trainer Lisa Boucher says many people come to her because they know they can't get themselves motivated to move.
"You can't play the mind game with yourself. You just have to make the decision that you're going to do it," she said.
- Go to gym
- Take a walk
- Use light weights
- Take the stairs
- Park farther away
But, even at work, Boucher says we can find time to move around. She recommends that people go to the gym during their lunch hour, but she knows this might not be possible for everyone.
"If you can even take half an hour and leave the office and walk on your lunch hour then that's getting something, and something is better than nothing," she said.
Plus, there are ways we can take advantage of our 15 minute work breaks during the day.
"You can have a few light-weight dumbbells underneath your desk that you can pull out on your break and do some simple things like squatting or bicep curls," she suggested.
She says other ways of getting exercise at work may seem more obvious. These include things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and parking as far away from the building as possible. As for when the best time to work out would be, Boucher says that depends on when you have the energy.
"There are some people that are absolutely morning people and they are at their supreme best at 5:30 in the morning," she noted.
But, she says people need to be honest with themselves about when they feel the most energy. Boucher has worked with a lot of people who tried to convince themselves they were morning people. But they lost interest in exercising since they didn't have the energy to do it.
