Expert: Li Siwei, Secretary General of cardiac rehabilitation research center of Chinese Association of Women Physicians, director of rehabilitation medicine center of Beijing Jingmei Group General Hospital
The Spring Festival holiday always passes quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it is the sixth day of the Chinese New Year. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, people tend to go out less.
So think back, how did you spend the first few days?
Some people may be chasing dramas:
Some people may be playing games:
Others may play cards at home:
Of course, there are also people who may be working overtime:
When everyone does these things, they all have one thing in common, that is, they need to sit all the time!
What happens when you sit for a long time? The Internet has been saying that sitting for a long time has all kinds of harms, in fact, is there really such a terrible thing?
Let's take a look at it today!
How long does it take to sit?
In general, sitting for more than 5 days a week for more than 8 hours a day, or maintaining a sitting position for more than 2 hours at a time, both of these conditions are called "sedentary".
In other words, even if you get up every 30 minutes to change your posture, if you sit for more than 40 hours a week, it is still sedentary!
In this way, it is not only difficult for "staying at home" during the New Year to get rid of the shadow of sitting for a long time, but also to return to the office to work after the New Year, but also to continue to "recruit"!
So, what are the dangers of sitting for a long time?
What are the dangers of sitting for a long time?
In fact, the harm of sitting on the body is closely related to the rapid development of human science and technology in recent years.
A long time ago, in order to adapt to the ancient hunting and gathering life, the human musculoskeletal system took millions of years to evolve into a suitable mode of movement, and in the past few hundred years, especially in the past hundred years, the development of science and technology is ten years, or even a year.
This has changed the way humans live too quickly and radically, especially for evolution, and the musculoskeletal system is far from ready for the current era of massive "meditation."
A system suitable for motion has to stand still for a long time, and that is bound to be a problem.
The first of course is the musculoskeletal problem. Including chronic muscle strain of the neck, shoulders, waist and legs, cervical and lumbar spondylosis caused by long-term excessive pressure on the spine, hip and knee pain caused by long-term poor posture... And so on and so forth. Sitting for a long time is not only a waist injury, it can hurt the entire spine and even the entire musculoskeletal system.
The second is a variety of metabolic and vascular problems caused by sedentary immobility. Like obesity, type 2 diabetes, all kinds of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases... Both have been linked to sedentary poor lifestyles. That is to say, sedentary people have a higher probability of suffering from diabetes and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and there is a higher all-cause mortality rate, and sedentary people are more likely to "die early".
But this is the case now, it is difficult to avoid sitting in the office for a long time, and it is necessary to continue to sit at home when resting. After sitting for a long time, how can we remedy it?
How to remedy after sitting for a long time?
The first is to try to avoid sitting still for long periods of time. The American Diabetes Association recommends avoiding sedentary periods longer than 90 minutes. In other words, after sitting for an hour and a half, you can get up and walk around, or lie down and take a break.
The sitting posture is also very important to pay attention to. Try to keep 3 right angles: large and small legs, thighs and torso, upper arms and forearms at right angles, eyes parallel to the computer screen; you can also put a cushion on the back of the waist to keep the lower back of the natural C-shaped curve; it is better to use an ergonomically designed chair, so that the lower back is supported when sitting.
If possible, standing and sitting postures can be alternated, and the standing or sitting time is changed in one to one and a half hours, which is conducive to reducing spinal pressure and relieving muscle fatigue. Playing mobile phones can stand up and continue to play, and playing cards can theoretically also stand and play for a while and then continue to sit down and play!
Of course, it is not enough to do the above, according to the clinical recommendations of the WHO, adults aged 18-64 should participate in 150-200 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week, or participate in about 75 minutes of high-intensity exercise, thereby "offsetting" some of the negative effects of sitting on the body.
In addition to that, there is also a "hidden cheat"!
The remedy of "hiding"
If you really don't have the conditions to sit for a long time, then you can shake your legs while you sit.
Don't laugh! A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in February 2016 showed that sitting is harmful to human health, while leg shaking may help counteract the negative effects of sitting.
Therefore, there is really no way, just take advantage of the fact that there is no one to shake your legs, and you can also move!
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Source: Popular Science China