In order for our body to function well, we need to exercise. Without exercising enough, our muscles wither, our circulation and digestion slow down, and our posture worsens. Physical exercise and health go hand in hand. Who wouldn’t want healthy looking skin, hair, nails, good levels of energy, healthy digestion, quality sleep, pain-free and well-performin body and mind?
The human body adapts to how we use it, therefore our appearance reflects our lifestyle. Not only we become hunched from sitting too much, our shoulders and head fall forward, we may even gain weight, and this negatively impacts our appearance. Being fit and toned feels good, but our health is even more important. If our lifestyle is destructive to our health, we should really think through our daily routine.
An inactive or deskbound lifestyle is particularly harmful and can lead to the development of various aches and pains, and even diseases. Bad posture causes pain in our neck and back, our breathing becomes shallow, our circulation and digestion slow down. This leads to weight gain and digestive problems, low levels of energy and tiredness, even sleep problems. If we sit for 8-10 hours every day, we are simply damaging our health.
What does it mean for our breathing?
Sitting limits the movement of our primary respiratory muscle, the diaphragm. Our breath becomes shallow, our oxygen intake reduces, which is our most important source of energy. Our breath is our primary detoxification system and with shallow breath the efficiency of our body’s cleansing weakens. Additionally, the diaphragm puts pressure on our abdominal organ with every breath, giving a stimulating massage in the ideal environment, which contributes to healthy digestion and metabolism. However with the breath being shallow it cannot perform this positive action.
Remaining stationary for too long slows blood circulation in the body, in particular to the lower part of the body, which can lead to all manner of health problems, including swelling, pain, chills, blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, and even the potential for a stroke. When doctors say that sitting too long may be killing you, they aren’t lying just to scare you.
These negative changes in breathing and circulation also affect our mood and we might start to show signs of anxiety, depression, irritability, and nervousness, due to the imbalance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
So what can you do for your health and wellbeing?
What could we do if we work in an office or are not exercising much but sitting a lot?
First of all, we have to realize that in order to be healthy, fit and happy in our skin, we need to exercise every single day.
How much exercise do you need? What type of exercise to choose? Several aspects should be taken into account, when determining what exercise would best support you. Consider for example your health, your gender and age, your daily routine, your current level of fitness, area of interest, what you want to achieve with exercise.
Ultimately, you need to find the best daily exercises that can offset the negative factors that arise from your lifestyle and have a harmful effect on you. If you get used to regular exercise, it will become part of your being, because you will experience its countless positive properties.
Just do it. (As the famous sports brand slogan puts it simply.)
Start today and practice every day. These are the most important principles. All right, but what?
When you start out, you might want to exercise for shorter periods of time, or try lower impact activities like walking, yoga and cycling. As you build your fitness, you can level up and add cardio and strength training.
- Try with something easily accessible: spend 20-30 minutes a day on a vigorous walk to exercise the whole body. You can do it in your lunch break, before or after work. Also try to get up from your desk every hour and walk around for a few minutes. It is important to breathe through your nose, with your mouth closed while walking to boost your oxygen uptake.
- Yoga is a great choice of exercise, which you can practice every day. It moves the entire body, harmoniously strengthening and stretching the muscles, and exercising the joints. Yoga focuses on the health of the spine which is extremely important for the health of the whole body. Our spine is usually exposed to a lot of stress, it is worth looking after it with anatomically correct movements.
Breathing has an integral part in yoga. We learn to observe and control our breath, improve our concentration. As a result of the movements, the breathing exercises and the relaxation, the nervous system is balanced. The calming effect of yoga helps reduce the impact of everyday stress. - It’s generally healthy to do cardio exercises 2-3 times a week as they essentially increase your breathing and heart rate, and help keep your heart, lungs and blood vessels healthy. This could be for example running, cycling, swimming and Zumba, football or tennis. Cardio requires stronger muscles and stamina so you might want to start with 15-20 minutes of cardio at first, and build it up over time. Benefits of cardio include weight loss, stronger immune system, and better sleep.
- Strength training involves using tools like weights, resistance bands, dumbbells, gym machines or your own body weight in order to build muscle mass and strength. It helps you feel stronger and healthier by controlling body fat, maintaining muscles, and improving bone health. Start exercising for a minimum of 10 minutes a day with intensity and effort, and gradually increase your capacity. You can make it a great biweekly one-hour workout with some warm up to begin and stretching at the end.
Invest time in your health and wellbeing
It is a known fact that exercise increases your heart rate and allows more oxygen to be pumped to your brain. Having a well-oxygenated brain can help manage anxiety and depression.
Exercising for about 30 minutes continuously helps the release of endorphins, which increases your sense of positivity during a workout. This is because endorphins relieve stress and reduce pain. More interestingly, exercising over a longer period of time can actually change the structure of your brain.
There is so much to gain from getting yourself off your chair. You don’t need to make a big financial investment, or required to have lots of free time. It’s just a matter of deciding how you want to live, sick or healthy.
Here is a solution for you. Learn the Aviva Method exercises from an authorised instructor and practice regularly. It does not only provide you the chance to be active, but also to be healthy. Improving your hormonal balance with these simple yet effective movements means you ripe even more benefits, your hormonal balance. Check out my other blogs to learn more.