How do you spend your day?
Generally speaking, how you spend your day depends on your occupation, location and lifestyle priorities. For the sake of this article, as an example, I’ll use a typical working day of an employed person working 9 to 5, living a sedentary life. This particular example won’t necessarily apply to everyone, but it helps bring out the point.
Let's put things into perspective.
A day has 24 hours. Someone working a 9 to 5 job would typically spend 8 hours at work. An hour may go to preparing for work, and another hour commuting to and from work. Let’s say things are great and they can get a good 8 hours of sleep each night, that puts us at a total of 18 hours.
Since our example subject leads quite a sedentary lifestyle, let’s imagine they spend the day sitting in an office chair. When they get home, they spend three hours on Netflix, YouTube or scrolling through social media sites....... or maybe just reading a book in an arm chair. If one hour goes to sitting down to eat (total over the course of the day), than puts us at 22 hours.
So, for 22 out of 24 hours, our subject is not using up much energy by way of activity. There’s very little movement performed and this is a lifestyle that can be on repeat for months or even years. What could possibly happen to our subjects’ body composition if they don’t change their lifestyle? And if this is coupled with unhealthy eating habits, what are the long-term health risks associated?
To gain a broader understanding, let's first look at ADAPTATION.
The body adapts to whatever we subject it to. This is perfectly described by the SAID principle - Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. Whatever demand we impose on our body, it simply adapts to it. This can be both good and bad depending on what we’re exposing our bodies to. So like our example subject, if the demand you impose on your body is "sitting" for long periods and being "inactive", your body will adapt to that. On the flip-side, if you practice certain movements or exercise regularly, your body will adapt to that.
With that in mind, long term inactivity means the body adapts to not using up much energy. When the body doesn't use up much energy, it naturally becomes very good at converting the energy it gets from food and storing it as fat. This tends to lead to weight gain over time, and while genetic predispositions affect to a great extent your body’s response to factors that affect body composition, we are specifically concerned with elevated body fat levels as a result of lack of activity.
Unhealthy body fat levels lead to an increased risk of developing obesity-related conditions such as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. The process of weight gain itself is usually gradual in nature, so gradual that a person may not be triggered to take action until something happens, like a health scare. It could be a doctor’s visit and that word of caution from the doctor that your health is at risk.
Research has shown that people who maintain #healthy body fat levels generally have an improved quality of life. Also, how you think and feel about your body is also linked to your mental health. A healthier body has less limitations.
Think about it for a moment, why are some people able to perform certain movements others can’t? Is it really that only a select few can do certain things? Could be true.., but in most cases, what your body has adapted to determines its abilities and limitations. A gymnast will most certainly move in a way that a power lifter can’t. Their bodies have adapted do different movement patterns.
So why is movement important?
Our bodies are made to move. When we move, we increase oxygen demand and blood circulation. Our muscles contract and use up (stored) energy. We start to use up more and more energy instead of storing it as fat. Metabolic function improves and our bodies develop new positive adaptations.
I’ve personally come across people who celebrate improvements to their physical and physiological abilities more than they celebrate body composition improvements. The ability to do something one previously couldn’t do brings a lot of joy as it directly impacts life and relationships.
Here are 3 ways you can include more #movement and improve your health
1. Walk more - this could be the best thing to start with if you’re not used to doing much activity.
2. Take a jog - schedule a day where you challenge yourself to a jog. Try to break a sweat.
3. Stand more than you sit - adopt a habit of getting up from the couch or office chair. Give yourself any reason to stand. You use up more energy when standing that when sitting.
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