#5 Move Your Body More

If there is one behaviour that is bad for your health it is staying still for long periods of time.  This is quite common in western societies for people who have desk jobs where they may sit for hours on end without moving. Very often, such people take a car or public transport to work and do very little walking.

Here’s why sitting down or staying still for prolonged periods of time can be damaging to health:

• It sabotages the lymph system, which doesn’t have a pump like the heart but needs the body’s movement to create the circulation to move toxins away from important organs of the body. Visualise the analogy of a pool of water or stream that doesn’t have moving water – it stagnates and becomes ridden with bacteria
• If your body is not moving, there is more pressure on the heart to do all the work of circulating blood around your body
• It reduces your body’s metabolic rate thus increasing the odds of weight gain and all the health risks associated with it
• Most people sit with bad posture such as a crouched position, which can lead to back and neck problems

So, if your job requires you so sit down for most of the day, make sure you get up and move around for at least 7 or 8 minutes every hour, take the stairs instead of the lift and make sure you get a decent walk each day.