The Dangers Of A Sedentary Lifestyle And How To Avoid Them

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The Hidden Dangers of a Sedentary Lifestyle in the 21st Century

Of all the health risks we face in the 21st century, one of the least talked about is our increasingly sedentary lifestyle.

Here is why we need to move more.

Sedentary is not a word you hear thrown around a lot, which is ironic when you consider how much time we spend that way. It describes time spent doing almost no physical activity, mostly sitting. For a lot of us that is upwards of six hours a day, and in some cases much more. Take sleep into account and only a fraction of the day is left for movement. The effects of this relatively new way of living are becoming more apparent all the time.

Compared with most of our ancestors in hunter-gatherer or farming societies, our bones are thinner, our muscles weaker and our stamina diminished. “But,” you say, “modern technology more than compensates.” Perhaps, but lost strength and stamina are not the only consequences. The World Health Organization reports that 31% of adults worldwide do not reach the recommended level of physical activity, that people who are physically inactive have a 20% to 30% higher risk of death than people who are sufficiently active, and that the problem is found in rich and poor countries alike.

Health Risks Associated with a Sedentary Lifestyle

A sedentary life raises the risk of cardiovascular disease, including strokes and heart attacks. It contributes to type 2 diabetes and obesity and makes both worse. It is also associated with higher risks of colon cancer, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, depression, anxiety and a long list of other physical and mental conditions.

Another problem is that sedentary lifestyles go hand in hand with other unhealthy habits such as smoking, drinking too much and a poor diet, each of which raises the same risks again. Chronic diseases linked to these habits are now the leading cause of death in most of the world, and most of them are preventable.

Unsurprisingly, the cure is movement. That part is obvious. The whole picture is a little more complicated.

Exercise vs Activity

Our modern idea of physical activity is quite different from that of most people who ever lived. For most of us, being more active means joining a gym or a pilates class.

Yet those activities have existed for only a few generations. Even much older ones, such as dance, yoga and the early forms of sport, were mostly practiced for cultural or spiritual reasons rather than as exercise.

The idea of doing intense physical activity for health or enjoyment is relatively recent. It has grown alongside our reliance on technology, our unprecedented amount of leisure time, and the gradual realization that sitting still is bad for us.

Today we have countless sports to choose from. We admire professional athletes and want to be leaner, fitter or stronger. But do those ideals have much to do with health? Less than you would think. Olympic medalists, for example, live on average 2.8 years longer than the general population: a real gain, but a modest one for a lifetime of training. Meanwhile many of the healthiest and longest-lived people on the planet have never set a single hour aside for exercise.

Keep Moving

The so-called Blue Zones, such as Sardinia in Italy and Okinawa in Japan, are famous for being home to some of the oldest and healthiest people in the world. At first, scientists assumed good genes. Then a well-known study of hundreds of pairs of Danish twins showed that longevity is only mildly heritable, and hundreds of studies since have examined the lifestyles of people in the Blue Zones to work out their secret.

Some of the answers: a sense of purpose and belonging, not smoking, mostly plant-based diets, and clean air. But one factor seems to matter more than the rest.

These people move constantly. Instead of intense exercise they do hours of low-level physical activity almost every day. To match them, or our prehistoric ancestors, you would need to walk well over 10,000 steps a day, which most of us will never manage without a seven-mile walk at lunch.

Fortunately there is a more realistic target. A Cambridge-led analysis of data from more than a million people found that 60 to 75 minutes of moderate activity a day offset the higher risk of early death that comes with sitting for eight hours or more, and that being inactive was a bigger risk than the sitting itself. Three quarters of the people studied did not manage that much, so the target is worth taking seriously. The WHO’s minimum is lower: at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, with less sitting on top.

What Is Moderate-Intensity Activity?

Moderate-intensity activity is anything that involves a lot of movement without pushing your heart rate or breathing to high levels. If you can still talk more or less normally while doing it, it counts. Some examples:

• Brisk walking and easy to moderate hikes
• Cycling at a gentle pace
• Gardening
• Light dancing
• Canoeing or paddling
• Woodwork and other crafts
• Some forms of yoga
• Housework and light maintenance
• Playing games in the garden with your kids

One of the best ways to make sure you move enough is to build one or more of these into your morning or evening routine. Other good ideas: a standing desk, the stairs whenever possible, and a pedometer or smartwatch to keep score. If the thing that keeps you in the chair is the screen, FocusMe‘s Screen Break mode locks it at the intervals you set, so you actually get up; and for what movement does for your working day, see How Exercise Impacts Your Overall Productivity.

Ultimately you will need to find what works for you. Just remember that life and movement go hand in hand.

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