Living a healthy lifestyle can be difficult in this technological era. While many of us eat well, exercise, and stay active in our leisure time, the fact remains that if you’re like 80 percent of the population, you’re still spending over 50 hours a week engaging in a behavior that puts your body and your brain at risk—sitting. From travelling to work, working on our computers, and using our mobile/smart phones, technology has made it less and less necessary to get any motion at all as we accomplish the activities of our daily lives. You don’t even have to get up to change the heat or turn off the lights. But the good news is that there are some people paying attention to this newest health crisis, working day and night developing ways you can get your 9-5 done without doing yourself in. But first… As a personal trainer and nutritionist, I see people who start a fitness programme and immediately injuring themselves because of minimal warm ups and the state the body is in through technology use and are technology related. They come in two forms, one being a repetitive strain injury (RSI). RSIs happen when people sit in incorrect static postures for long periods of time. These incorrect postures put a strain on the musculoskeletal system, resulting in chronic and painful injuries. The second most common type of injury I see is caused by deconditioning syndrome. This is what is believed to be responsible for so many of the “CrossFit” and other injuries reported by the media. When you sit without motion for days, weeks, and months at a time, the body gets out of shape. The smaller stabilizer muscle groups of the body become weak, ligaments are stiff or elongated, and joints are out of place. We then go to the gym and push our bodies to the max, without really warming up, and of course we get hurt. The body is not made to stay still—it’s made to move! And when you put it in a state of dysfunction with long periods of sedentary time, a short warm up (or no warm up at all) isn’t enough to avoid injury. There’s a third danger to technology that comes as a result of us increasing the amount of time we spend inactive, and that is an increased risk of chronic diseases. Motion is a necessary nutrient for the body, and just like not moving can affect the musculoskeletal system, it can also cause dysfunction to your biochemical processes. Your circulation, metabolism, and brain chemistry are all affected when you don’t move enough. For example, after only one hour of sitting, the body stops producing an enzyme (lipoprotein lipase) that it needs to effectively break down fats and sugars. The result of these long periods of inactivity are associated with higher risks of type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, obesity, and mortality. So that was the bad news. But the good news is that avoiding the risks brought on by technology is pretty simple to do. You just have to sit less and move more, and when you are sitting, be mindful that you’re doing it with proper posture. For every hour that you sit, you need to take a two-minute break to move around to prevent those biochemical processes from breaking down. While you’re moving, do more than take a walk. Do some stretches or some resistance exercises that will also help keep your musculoskeletal system healthy and efficient. When you sit, you want to make sure to keep an S curvature to your spine. Hunching over technology often puts our body into a C-shaped posture that can increase the sheer force your spine is expected to support. Make sure your chest is up, shoulders are back and down, your pelvis is forward, chin is tucked in, and your feet are flat on the floor. When it comes to technology and your health, it isn’t all bad. In the last few years, there have been some major developments that can actually keep you safe and healthy in this super connected world. Here are some to look out for: Healthy bloggers and fitness articles: These are produced by health and fitness professionals and not only point out the risks we take in not leading a healthy lifestyle but also the things we can do to change our ways and improve our lives. Fitness Apps. Fitness apps are the fastest growing trend in apps today. Your phone can help you diet, exercise, and remind you to move when you’ve been sedentary too long. With Apple’s new HealthKit on iOS 8, you can compile all of your health and fitness data onto one easy to read screen. Activity Trackers. Use these babies to track your steps, your work outs, your posture, and even your sleep. We haven’t seen the last of the research on the negative effects of prolonged sitting, nor have we seen the last of the tech devices that will increase the amount of time you spend being sedentary. Doctors and researchers are now looking at how inactivity affects the brain, creativity, mood, and even cognitive functioning, all while engineers are creating light bulbs and locks that can be controlled by your phone. What we all need to do is pay attention, to the research and to your body. If you’re tired, in pain, or getting injured often, there’s probably something you can change to make that better. Im to help and so are countless other health and fitness professionals. #FitTip #HereToHelp
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 07:24:14 +0000
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