Be more active at work
Reducing our inactivity at work
Be more healthy
Dr Morag Thow
Ms Sarah Mitchell
Ms Margaret Brownlee
Focus for today?
1. Sitting and our posture
2. Reducing our sitting time
3. Walking and exercising at work more
Sitting has increased in all our
lives!
• Computers
• TV
• Cars
• More mechanization
Our sitting time?
Talk to partner beside you
1. How much do you sit at work?
2. When you go home do you sit a lot?
Poor sitting posture!
Very bad effects of sitting!
Improve your sitting station
Improve your sitting posture
• Gravity is working
on us all the time.
• Think tall: imagine
a string on top of
your head, pulling
you up.
• Do seated
exercises.
Do seated exercises, if you
can’t stand
•
•
•
•
Neck rotation
Shoulder shrug
Wrist rolling
Open and close
fingers
• Resisted bicep
curls
• Toe raises
•
•
•
•
•
Forward bend
Rotate spine
Side stretch
Knee to chest
Knee lifts, foot
back
• Sunshine!
We can now sit in a better posture
BUT …
… sitting for long
periods is bad, and
seats are EVIL.
EVIL!!
Prolonged sitting is bad.
Seats are EVIL !
What has happened over
time
• Increases in
inactivity
• Decrease in
activity
Why is sitting so bad?
• Each 1-hour increment in sitting time
was found to be associated with an 11%
and an 18% increased risk of all-cause
and Cardiovascular Disease mortality,
respectively (Dunstan et al Circulation
2010).
• Less time sitting prolongs life (Hidde
et al Arch Intern Med. 2012).
This is what happens when
we sit for periods>1 hour
• Electrical signals to legs
shut down.
• Calorie burning reduces
1% per minute.
• Good protective
cholesterol drops 20%.
• Blood sugar starts to
rise.
• Insulin effectiveness
reduces.
Avoiding
sedentarism/sitting
• Don’t sit for long
periods of time.
• Introduce
inconvenience
into your daily
life!
• Break up your
sitting as much as • What can you do to
break up periods of
you can.
sitting and introduce
inconvenience?
How can we stop sitting so
much?
• With partner: how can you Introduce
inconvenience into your daily life?
• Here’s one idea: put a yellow sticky on
your computer saying ‘Get up every
hour!’
Get up
every
hour!!
Some solutions!
• Stand for a time
to work.
• Have meetings
standing.
• If you chair a
meeting, get
group to stand
every hour.
More solutions!
• Install a screen
saver to stop
working every
hour.
• Walk to water
station and
printer.
• Stand up to talk
on the phone.
STAND UP NOW!
• Standing is better than sitting!
More walking and exercising
at work
Physical Activity
Recommendations
• So what type of,
and how much,
activity should
we all be doing
to benefit our
health?
Aerobic Exercise
• What is aerobic
exercise?
• What does it do
for our health &
well-being?
Aerobic Exercise &
Fitness
• Activities which
increase your
heart and
breathing rates.
AND
• Which you can do
continuously for a
fairly long time.
Decreases your risk of :
• Early mortality
• Heart disease, stroke,
diabetes
Also improves:
• Weight management
• Functional
independence
Guidelines: Aerobic Fitness
• Moderate intensity activity for 30
minutes on at least 5 days per
week (150 mins per week MINIMUM)
OR/and
• Vigorous intensity activity for 20
minutes on 3 days per week
• 30 mins can be done in
3 × 10-minute bouts!
BORG Scale: How it should feel
7 VERY VERY LIGHT
A DODDLE
8
9 VERY LIGHT
A SKOOSH
10
11 FAIRLY LIGHT
NAE BOTHER
12
13 SOMEWHAT HARD
PECHIN
14
15 HARD
WABBIT
Overload
16
17 VERY HARD
PUGGLED
18
19 VERY VERY HARD
20
KNACKERED
Try to build in 30 mins
walking
• 3 × 10 minutes × 5
days = minimum
recommendations
for health
• Only 150 mins per
week!
• Needs to be at 100130 beats per min!
• (‘Staying alive’, Bee
Gees = 104 BPM)
Have you found this useful!!
Perhaps you might donate a small
sum to the Hospice?
Website : www.svh.co.uk
St Vincent's Hospice
Midton Road,
Howwood,
Renfrewshire PA9 1AF
Tel: 01505 705635