Contentious statement huh. It’s certainly an interesting thought.<\/p>\n
The clever people at\u00a0http:\/\/www.medicalbillingandcoding.org\/sitting-kills\/ tell us that people are now sitting for an astonishing average of 9.3 hours a day! I find that fact amazing, I’m not sure I could sit for that long in one day, but then I’ve never been a fan of sitting still for long, ask my husband. He’s always telling me to “just come and sit down”.<\/p>\n
So whats the problem with sitting….observational studies suggest that it is linked to obesity and heart disease. This is pretty obvious as being inactive is a known factor in these chronic diseases. The interesting idea from studies is that sitting still is the problem as it slows your metabolism down, so even those who exercise regularly but then sit still for long periods will have a slower metabolism and consequently gain weight. \u00a0So sitting needs to be interrupted with periods of activity.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/em>Part of the problem from a Pilates perspective is that sitting places your body in a position thats just not good for your alignment.\u00a0The more time you spend sitting, the tighter your hamstrings become.\u00a0 The tighter your hamstrings, the more they pull the lowest curve out of the spine and tuck the tailbone under. You get lower back pain…..sound familiar?! If so come and see me and we’ll find some exercises to help \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n The other issue is all the curves and bends in the body affect your blood flow. Your blood likes to flow freely in a straight line. Sitting in a bent position for a long period of time stops it from being able to do this. And…..you say…..well this leads to blood cells bumping into things and getting damaged, which leads to plaques building up obstructing blood vessels which links us back to heart disease. Ouch.<\/p>\n The answer…either have a standing workstation (lovely idea and great if it works for you but it isn’t going to work for most people) or break up your sitting with lots of activity breaks – make a drink, walk up some stairs, go and chat to someone instead of emailing them…you get the idea. Standing instantly makes your body work harder and puts you in a better alignment, especially if you’ve been to my Pilates sessions and have learnt how to stand \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Fascinating stuff. It certainly means those hours of baby rocking and sling walking combined with my inability to sit still is all good. So all of you sat down reading this…STAND UP!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Contentious statement huh. It’s certainly an interesting thought. The clever people at\u00a0http:\/\/www.medicalbillingandcoding.org\/sitting-kills\/ tell us that people are now sitting for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[59,75,92,97],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lower-back","tag-pilates","tag-sitting","tag-standing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3FIsx-3T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1463,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1463","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":0},"title":"Sitting is shaving years off you.","author":"Priya Tew","date":"31 January, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"How long do you sit for on an average day? Think it through to include driving, eating, work, relaxing\u2026. I bet it is longer than you would expect. Most people don't realise how long they sit. We've turned into a society that wants to sit rather than stand. Standing is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alignment"","block_context":{"text":"Alignment","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=616"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pilates with Priya: Sitting is shaving years off your life","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/free_96834-190x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1726,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1726","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":1},"title":"3 Moves to think about with Diastasis","author":"Priya Tew","date":"23 November, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0If you have abdominal separation, or are pregnant, here are 3 moves to stay clear of... 1. Sitting up from Lying It's such a simple everyday move but sitting up in bed is something to modify. Why? It puts pressure on your rectus abdominus or \"six-pack\" muscles. These muscles you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alignment"","block_context":{"text":"Alignment","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=616"},"img":{"alt_text":"Diastasis Recti","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/diastasis-recti-in-men-and-women.-300x197.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2308,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=2308","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":2},"title":"Why you could live longer if you can sit and rise properly.","author":"Priya Tew","date":"22 September, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently I\u2019ve been looking more at how functional exercises equip us for everyday life and how important that is. Being able to sit down and get up from a chair or the floor unaided may not sound like much but actually it can make a huge different to your quality\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Exercises"","block_context":{"text":"Exercises","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/8iTVvfdfy-M\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1723,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1723","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":3},"title":"The plague of tight hamstrings","author":"Priya Tew","date":"8 November, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Following on from our last post (where I discovered how tight my husbands hamstrings are) and a few enquiries this week.... I bring you the plague of most of the men who come to our classes and also quite a few women! So what is going on and why does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Back pain"","block_context":{"text":"Back pain","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hamstring Stretch","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/IMG_2721-224x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1649,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1649","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":4},"title":"Office Exercises for backs & shoulders.","author":"Priya Tew","date":"5 September, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you sit a lot for work\/travel? It's well known now that sitting for long periods really isn't good for our bodies, however it isn't always avoidable! Sitting can often lead to tight hamstrings, rounded shoulders and lower back pain. Here are some ideas to help you release tension, alleviate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alignment"","block_context":{"text":"Alignment","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=616"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/NhCC41jyARw\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1889,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1889","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":5},"title":"A Man’s Pilates Journey and a Challenge for you.","author":"Priya Tew","date":"14 March, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a while since my last Blog. I\u00a0am still regularly attending classes, and loving it. ;-) The only week I have missed, was when I was in Spain for a family holiday...the commitment is paying off. I am starting to see the benefits. I look forward to Wednesday evenings.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Back pain"","block_context":{"text":"Back pain","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hamstring Stretch","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/IMG_2721-224x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3733,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions\/3733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}