This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2014at 12:06 pm by zoe.leahy@activenation.org.uk

Stop What You’re Doing And Stand Up While You Read This!!!

Join us for one day as we tackle the ‘Disease Of Sitting’. Whether you’re in the office, at home with the kids or just going about your normal business we want you to join us by getting up for No Sitting Day!

We all need to stand more to improve our health and the effects of excessive sitting – particularly office workers who spend long periods of time sat at their desk. So we have decided to launch our first No Sitting Day on Monday July 28th.

Why not try balancing on an exercise ball while at your desk? Or bouncing on a space hopper?

Get the kids jumping on a pogo stick or trampoline and away from the games consoles!

Ride a bike rather than go in the car!

Ditch the meeting room and walk and talk in the sunshine!

We don’t mind how you do it – the wackier the better – just get out of the chair and improve your health!

A test carried out by a scientific team from the University of Chester working with BBC Two’s ‘Trust Me I’m A Doctor’ programme, found that standing increased people’s heart rate which – when averaged over weeks and months – lead to the equivalent number of calories burned as if they’d run about 10 marathons in the year!

They also found that their blood sugar levels dropped after standing at their desks for random intervals at least three hours daily.

Statistics show that if you sit for more than 23 hours per week you are 64% more likely to die of heart disease.

Health Ministers have long been campaigning to get people to do more exercise, but research has shown that even if you spend an hour every night in the gym, prolonged periods of inactivity are still bad for our health.

The way the body deals with sugars and fats when sitting down has been linked to increased risk of diabetes and heart disease, and with some people now sitting for 12 hours a day, whether at work, watching TV or in a car, we are the most sedentary humans in history and we could be sitting on a health time bomb.

Physical therapist Mark O’Brien from Ireland said: “Excessive sitting, or sitting disease, is also now known to contribute to the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. So just getting up off your backside for an extra 3 to 4 hours per day while at work and at home can reduce these risks.”

So what are you waiting for? Join us on Monday as we ditch the chair and sit less. And don’t forget to take a picture of yourself and post it on our Facebook page! We’d love to see everyone getting involved! www.facebook.com/activenationuk