Right now, you are probably sitting down to watch this article and staying seated for a few minutes to view it prob okay. But the longer you stay put, the more agitated your body becomes. It sits there counting down the moments until you stand up again and take it for a walk; that may sound ridiculous. Our bodies love to sit, right? Not really. Sure, sitting for a brief can help us recover from the stress or recuperate from exercise. Still, nowadays, our lifestyles make us sit much more than we move around, and our bodies aren't built for such a sedentary existence.
In fact, just the opposite is true the human body is built to move. Inside us are over 360 joints and about 700 skeletal muscles that enable easy, fluid motion. The body's unique physical structure gives us the ability to stand up straight against the pull of gravity.
Our blood depends on us moving around to be able to circulate properly. Our nerve cells benefit from movement and molds to our motions. So every inch of your body is ready and waiting for you to move; what happens when you don't? Let's start with the backbone of the problem, literally. Your spine is a long structure made of bones and the cartilage discs that sit between them.
Joints, muscles, and ligaments that are attached to the bones hold It all together. A common way of sitting is with a curved back and slumped shoulders, a position that puts uneven pressure on your spine.
Over time, this causes wear and tear in your spinal discs, overwork certain ligaments and joints, and put a strain on muscles that stretch to accommodate your back's curved position, meaning your lungs have less space to expand into when you breathe. That's a problem because it temporarily limits the amount of oxygen, fills your lungs, and filters into your blood. Around the skeleton are the muscles, nerves, arteries, and veins that form the body's soft tissue layers. The very act of sitting squashes, pressurize, and compresses, and these more delicate tissues really feel the brunt.
Have you ever experienced numbness and swelling in your limbs when you sit? In areas that are the most compressed, your nerves limit nerve signaling, causing numbness, and reduces the blood flow In your limbs, causing them to swell.
Most of the time, you probably sit down to use your brain, but ironically lengthy periods of sitting actually run counter to this goal; being Stationary reduces blood flow and the amount of oxygen entering your bloodstream through your lungs. Sitting for long periods also temporarily deactivates lipoprotein lipase, a special enzyme in the walls of blood capillaries that breaks down fat in the blood. When you sit, you are not burning fat nearly as well when you move around. What effect does all of this statis have on the brain?;
Your brain requires both of those things to remain alert, so your concentration levels will most likely dip as your brain activity slows .unfortunately to the ill effects of being seated don't only exist in the short term. Recent studies have found that sitting for long periods is linked with some cancers and diseases and can contribute to diabetes, kidney and liver problems.
In fact, researchers have worked out that worldwide inactivity causes about 9% of premature deaths a year. That's over 5 million people. So what seems like such a harmless habit actually has the power to change our health. But luckily, the Solutions to this mounting threat are simple and inactive when you have no choice but to sit, try switching the slouch for a straighter spine, and when you don't have to be bound to your seat, aim to move around much more perhaps by setting a reminder to yourself to get up every half hour but mostly, appreciate that bodies are built for motion, not for stillness.
In fact, since the article is almost over, why not stand up and stretch right now.
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