As you will no doubt have realised if you follow me, I am always trying to encourage people to sit less. Today I take the challenge to get off your butts.
We are designed to be hunters and gatherers but there has been a relatively recent change in human behaviour. We now sit more, we are in front of computers at work, we sit in cars and trains getting to work and back home and then we sit down in front of the TV in the evening. Evolution hasn’t had time to catch up with this change and this results in pains, niggles and injuries. I do believe that many running injuries are not because of the running but how we spend our time while we are not running.
I’m not totally immune to spending time sitting. You might think I am lucky to be outside or in the gym moving around with my clients but a big chunk of my time is spent working in front of a computer. Think of this blog as an example. I do always try to break down my computer time into moments when I move around (see this blog).
One of the things we can do to take care of our hunter/gatherer bodies is sit less. And this is where I am setting you the challenge. What can you do to reduce the amount of time on your butt? I also asked my Facebook group for what they do and we came up with this:
- Encourage stand up meetings at work
- Use the stand up tables at work – gradually increase the time you stand up (I have had many people who say they can’t be bothered setting it up. But really? How much do you value your body?)
- When you come into an office and you are invited to sit down, say you’d rather stand
- Walking meetings
- Going for a walk to get coffee
- Walk/do exercises over lunch
- Take breaks and go for a walk when you get stuck
- Walk or cycle to work or get off the bus a stop earlier
- If you like technical solutions, one of my group members suggested a treadmill desk, wireless headsets with active noise cancelling so you can walk during calls and a software programme that gives you an alert after an hour to get up and move
- If you can get your colleagues on board have a game throwing and kicking small sand bags around for 15 minutes in the afternoon
- And if you work from home and have a dog then you have a built in solution :)
And make sure you have comfortable shoes on. Uncomfortable heels are not going to encourage you to get moving.
If you need a bit more encouragement – a lovely client of mine who owns a business loves to walk and run as much as possible to help her brainstorming. Why not give that a go and see what happens.
Do you dare to be different? I have some clients who don’t care about what others think about what they do – and these are the people that make the biggest changes in their performance. Come on, join me, be a rebel! And let me know how you get on.
Author: Lorna Wilson
Like what you see? Then send me a message or e-mail. We can meet up for a chat and find out how I can help you improve your training and help reduce injury risk.
06 460 377 74 / lorna@wilsonsworkouts.nl
