Welcome to Move More!
KEY POINTS:
1. We’re in the midst of the Inactivity Epidemic: The average adult spends 9-10 hours sitting each day.
2. The more you sit, the more likely you are to developing chronic illnesses including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.
3. The good news: you don’t need to do much physical activity to reduce your risk of getting these illnesses.
4. 1% changes - such as 15 minutes of walking each day - reduces your risk of getting breast and colon cancer by 24-50%.
“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise - not too little and not too much - we would have found the safest way to health.”
A new drug has been discovered with such broad ranging powers that it may end up being the cure for all human disease. Early reports suggest that it can be used to prevent and treat almost every chronic disease faced by humans. The list of benefits of taking this drug are truly amazing.
This drug has been shown to:
· lower your risk of certain types of cancer by 24-50%,
· prevent and treat cardiovascular disease,
· reverse type 2 diabetes,
· reduce the number of cold and flu infections that you get by 75%,
· prevent osteoporosis,
· alleviate depression and anxiety,
· prevent Alzheimer’s disease
· improve memory, learning, problem solving, and concentration,
· make you happier.
There is only one catch to this drug. You have to take it almost every day for the rest of your life. You have to be consistent. If you do that you’re guaranteed to get the benefits. Have you figured it out yet? This “drug” is exercise. It does all of the above and much, much, more. Are you in?
But, once again the world is faced with a grand challenge – the inactivity epidemic.
As with the challenges we face with when it comes to eating well, it’s not easy to build exercise into our day. And many of our daily tasks are killing us. We commute to and from work using our cars or public transportation. Most of us have desk jobs. Students sit for hours in class.
The British Medical Journal reports that the average adult spends between 9-10 hours sitting each day. That’s a lot of sedentary behaviour! And it happens because our world is built to sit us down. Which means that our world is also built to make us sick.
We now know that sitting is an independent risk factor for chronic illnesses, including cancer. Basically, the more sedentary you are, the sicker you will probably get. Consider that a recent review of 43 studies analyzing daily activity and cancer rates found that people who reported sitting for more hours of the day had a 24% greater risk of developing colon cancer, a 32% higher risk of endometrial cancer, and a 21% higher risk of lung cancer—regardless of how much they exercised.
The more you sit, the higher your chances of developing a chronic illness like obesity, type 2 diabetes, or cancer. But so many of us have to sit during the day for our jobs, during our commutes or in school. So what’s one to do?
We need to move more – and move more consistently.
Short bouts of activity throughout your day can supercharge your health and performance. Fifteen minutes of exercise – like a short walk – can increase your ability to concentrate and problem solve. Fifteen minutes of walking each day reduces your risk of breast and colon cancer by 24-50%.
Remember, it’s all about being 1% better and learning from the extremes of human health and performance. Fortunately, the idea that exercise is medicine is exploding around the world. Researchers and clinicians are now discovering powerful links between movement and health.
We’re going to spend some time together exploring these links.
This Week’s Exercise: Decrease your sitting time
The first step towards a healthy, active lifestyle is not to increase your physical activity, but rather to decrease your sitting time. If you have a standard office or desk job, this might seem difficult at first. However, there are a few different tricks you can try:
1. Follow the 20/20 rule: for every 20 minutes of sitting, stand and stretch for 20 seconds. If you are in a space that doesn’t disturb others, set an alarm on your phone to remind you to do this.
2. If you take public transportation to work, stand up instead of sitting down.
3. Stand when making a phone call that doesn’t require you to be at your computer.
For the next week, try to incorporate these strategies into your daily routine. We’ll check back in with you next week to see how you’re doing. Good luck!
Bonus Content
Congratulations on completing the first Move More lesson!
In this module I'll be sending you a video series we did for Running Room on the science of running. While the videos focus on running the science applies to all activities.
Here's the first video - let us know what you think!
The information and advice provided in this program is intended to assist you with improving your performance, as well as your general health. It is not intended and should not be used in place of advice from your own physician or for treatment or diagnosis of any specific health issue. By participating in this program you acknowledge that undertaking any new health, diet and/or exercise regime involves certain inherent risks, that you assume such risks, and that you release Wells Performance Inc. from any responsibility or claim relating to such participation.