Most people spend a majority of their day either sitting on the desk during work. Although it’s not always possible to stand while you work or spend your weekend on your feet, sitting all day long can have detrimental health effects, including early death, increased risk of heart disease, foggy brain, and muscle degeneration.
It’s important to take the proper precautions to keep your health in check if you know you need to spend a large portion of your day sitting.
Although you can’t completely eradicate the negative consequences of too much inactivity, adapting certain daily habits can help boost your overall health. If you’re at a desk all day, try incorporating these six things to keep yourself as healthy as possible.
1. Exercise Daily
Exercising daily can help lessen the negative health effects of sitting at a desk. Studies show that people who exercise experience less health risks than people who sit all day but don’t do any physical activity.
2. Drink A Lot Of Water
Staying hydrated will keep your energy levels up and prevent you from becoming fatigued. Keep a bottle of water by your desk and sip it throughout the day for sustained energy.
3. Get Up And Walk
Experts recommend getting up and walking around every 20 minutes, which can help lessen your chances of contracting heart disease and diabetes. Set an alarm to remind yourself to get up, whether you take a walk or go to the bathroom.
4. Take The Stairs
If you work in an office building that has multiple levels, always opt to take the stairs instead of the elevator. Taking the stairs, even at a slow pace, can help you burn two to three times as many calories, and a Harvard University study even found that people who take at least eight flights of stairs a day have a 33 percent reduced mortality rate.
5. Blink
Staring at a computer screen all day can dry out your eyes, so it’s important to make a conscious effort to blink. Studies show that looking at a screen all day decreases our blinking times, and it can even make changes to tear fluid that resembles dry eye disease.
6. Pick A Good Chair
A good chair provides adequate lumbar and pelvic support, which can help reduce stress on your back muscles and lessen your chances of back pain. Good posture is important, as bad posture can cause pain and even fatigue.
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