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Sit less and live more

You must be aware that exercise can help you remain fit. But do you know that sitting for less time can also help you to improve your longevity.

Considering the importance of health and fitness, you may be engaging yourself in sports, gym or regular fitness activities. Organizations are also taking many initiatives under corporate wellness programs like having in-house gyms, conducting fitness camps, and other sports activities for their employees. However, recent studies have shown that we need to do more than just exercising. We need to restructure our work and life to reduce the number of hours spent sitting.

Sit less live more

Science speaks

Research scientists say that sitting for longer period can affect our health in many ways. We are inactive during the sitting hours and make very few movements. As a result there are less muscle contractions in our body, which are otherwise required for utilization of sugar and fat. Sitting for more hours reduces the burning of fat and causes more accumulation in our body.

Studies have linked sedentary lifestyle to higher risk of developing obesity, diabetes, heart diseases and all these are known to increase mortality. But going further ahead, scientists are of the opinion that long hours of sitting are equivalent to other single risk factors like smoking or diabetes that can decrease the life span.

You can help

Researchers suggest that apart from exercising at least for 30 minutes, it is necessary that we sit for less time. We need to be physically active and limit our sitting hours.

This is more of a problem in offices, where the workforce spends more time in sitting and doing desk jobs. In such case, organizations and fitness experts need to find some alternatives to make arrangements to reduce sitting hours. Some suggestions like treadmill desks or stand up desks can be considered accordingly to the feasibility.

Apart from this it is wise to take breaks from the sitting jobs. Moving in between can help your muscles and relax your spine too.

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