In the abundance of the modern world, strange problems that never occurred to our ancestors have become a slow poison. Sitting is now a staple position of normal life, we sit at desks at home, desks at work, the seats of our cars or public transport, in waiting rooms, and while dining. While in the past sitting was done to rest and for some other activities, the current times we live in now has increased sitting time per day anywhere from 4 to 8 hours. How did it get this way? First we must take a quick trip through history.
The Agriculture Revolution
Plants, crops, and farms are great, but before those were a thing our ancestors used to migrate, hunt, and gather food and resources as nomadic tribes. Needless to say tons of exercise was the baseline for survival, and that few to no humans during this period would be overweight. Being fat back in these times would actually advertise status because food primarily was scarce. All of that changed once people began to learn how to farm and work the land. Food abundance increased, and people could now settle in one location and begin to build a life with reliable resources.
The Industrial Revolution
Then came the marvels of machines, causing most manual labor to be replaced with some kind of mechanized version of process. Better technology and further advancement in packaging, processing, and moving goods around was another huge boost to wealth of the world, and drastically increased the availability of food again. Jobs began to become more technical and about manufacturing or repairing machines, and removing demand for physical labor jobs. People were not often fat in this era, but it sets the stage for the next era of advancement.
The Digital Revolution
Now come the computers, programming languages, and video games. Computers began creeping into the workplace and household alike. Now more tasks and paperwork began to be accomplished digitally and creating more and more demand for people to work from desks, and with desks comes chairs. This trend continued as advancements in computers did. The internet and graphics cards now allowed for staying home to become more of a viable option compared to the past norm of “going out”. You can watch movies on your computer, play games on the computer, speak to people, and even work on the computer. Entertainment, socializing, news, work, and information has now gathered onto one or multiple devices that just about everyone everywhere has.
Why it’s Bad
The concern for all of this excess sitting is that sitting burns much less calories than standing, along with causing muscle stiffness and depression from lack of exercise and being outdoors. While technology advancements are great for everyone’s quality of living usually, they do bring new challenges and hazards to modern living. Constant sitting has seduced the world into moving from one chair to the next, in what has become known as the sedentary lifestyle. While it is still predominantly the actual calories from eating that makes people fat, this absence of movement has been a catalyst for making the obesity pandemic even worse.
How to Fight Back
Before the realization of how much the world sits every day brings down your spirits, know that the first step is acknowledging the problem and becoming aware of the consequences. Knowing what will happen if constant sitting continues will cause you to stand up more and find ways to balance out the amount of time spent in a chair. When I was working on midnight shift, I realized that the main times I wasn’t sitting was when I was at the gym, the grocery store, and walking to my car to drive to these places. The easiest thing to do to offset excessive sitting is to periodically stretch throughout the day, hamstrings especially. Beyond that is the tried and true weekly staple of exercise where stretching is also done. And for those who’s life revolves around a computer on a desk, a standing desk or laptop stand can be considered. These are solutions that elevate the actual positioning of the keyboard or workspace to allow standing while working and can range from a few hundred dollars for a stand, to several hundred for a full standing desk with or without it’s own motor. It must be stressed however, that while these desks can help, they will always pale in comparison to the main remedy that fixes the core problem: Stretching, and EXERCISE.
If you need help with getting started on your journey check out my store page. You can sign up for my Facebook group or book a call with me!
Don’t give up, honor your gift
-Ed