A disproportionately large percentage of our society leads a sedentary lifestyle. If you are like most people in the developed world, then you most likely sit all day at work.

As you can imagine, sitting all day at work and then coming home to eat dinner while sitting in front of the TV can have a negative impact on both your physical and mental health. Studies have shown that a sedentary lifestyle will put you at risk for a number of different health problems.

If you sit at a desk at work all-day

Then it is very important that you add physical activity to your daily routine. Furthermore, you want to ensure that you are adding enough physical activity to your day to offset sitting at your computer for eight hours, or even more.

First, it is important to recognize how a sedentary lifestyle will negatively impact your health. Then, we will discuss how much exercise you need in order to reap the health benefits of physical activity if you are someone who was previously sedentary. After that, we will provide some suggestions on how to add physical activity to your day so that you can offset your sedentary lifestyle.

How a sedentary lifestyle negatively impacts your health

You may have heard that sitting is often referred to as the “new smoking”. This is because now, more than ever, people spend the vast majority of their day behind a desk. Lee et al. stated that physical inactivity is responsible for approximately 9% of premature mortality worldwide because it puts people at risk for major non-communicable diseases.

Those who are physically inactive are more at risk for various types of cancers, coronary heart disease, and type 2 diabetes (Lee et al. 2012).

Physical inactivity can also correlate with high blood pressure as well as various aches and pains throughout the body. For example, sitting at a desk for long periods of time can cause neck strain and back pain.

Not only that, but people who are physically inactive are more likely to be overweight. Being overweight often makes people feel bad about themselves and lose confidence in themselves.

This, in turn, has a negative impact on their mental health, their body image, and their ability to develop relationships with others.  As a result of worsening physical and mental health, other aspects of people’s lives may suffer.

How much exercise do you need to offset a sedentary lifestyle

Unfortunately, the answer to this question is not as simple as going to the gym after work three times per week. In fact, some studies have shown that regardless of physical activity, those who sit for long periods of time are more likely to die prematurely. Therefore, as you can imagine, it takes a bit more than a couple of trips to the gym to offset inactivity.

However, it’s important to note that you can mitigate your health risks from leading a sedentary lifestyle when you add more regular physical activity to your day.

The good news is that even 30 to 40 minutes of daily moderate physical activity will significantly reduce the mortality risk associated with sitting all day (Ekelund et al.,2020). If you find it difficult to exercise for 40 minutes at once, then you can break it up into manageable 10-minute blocks throughout the day.

However, if you can do more than 40 minutes of daily exercise, then you definitely should. If you can think of a one-hour workout as only 4% of your day, then you can definitely make time for exercise.

How to add more physical activity to your daily routine?

In order to become more physically active, you don’t have to shell out a bunch of money for a gym membership or start training for a marathon. You can make small changes to your routine and still reap the health benefits of exercise.

Park your car farther away

First, you can park farther away from wherever you need to go. When you go to the grocery store, to work, or to the bank, don’t just pick the closest parking spot.

Yes, you will have to walk a little bit farther but the extra steps will be good for you long-term.

If you take the bus to get around, then you should get off the bus one stop before you actually need to, so you end up fitting in a bit more walking.

Use stairs

Second, rather than taking the elevator, use the stairs regardless of which floor you have to get to. You can also opt to go for a short, brisk walk during your breaks at work or at lunchtime.

If you are sitting down to watch TV after work, you can do some jumping jacks, planks, crunches, squats, and push-ups during commercial breaks.

Stay active daily

Additionally, you should gradually work on increasing your daily physical activity levels. If you were previously completely inactive, then even a 10 or 15-minute walk is better than nothing. Furthermore, playing tag with your kids and doing household chores can be another great way to add more physical activity to your day.

You can also download an app that tracks your steps and challenge your friends online to keep each other accountable. There are many free apps that will inspire you to increase your daily step count.

As you can see, there is no shortage of opportunities for you to get active.

Without a doubt, chronic inactivity is harmful to your health and will have a negative impact on your longevity. In modern-day society, we sit in our cars to drive to work, then we sit at a desk all day and then we come home to sit down and watch TV. 

Take away

Luckily, we can add more physical activity to our daily life and reap long-term health benefits. To compensate for a day of sitting, you should strive to do 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day. Lastly, it’s important to note that there are many creative ways for you to add movement to your daily life without spending hours at the gym or running marathons.