October Newsletter- Sqautober is Here!
Your Chair Is Slowly Killing You…. Time to Start Squatting
The adverse health effects of too much time spent sitting are well researched. Studies have shown that sitting for long periods has disastrous effects on our cellular and metabolic health.
Here’s a quick summary of some of the effects sitting has on our body:
Metabolic activity and caloric consumption slow dramatically (70% less than walking)
Sitting several hours every day increases insulin resistance (which is a pre-cursor to type-II diabetes
Increases LDL or ‘bad cholesterol’
Our bodies were not designed for sitting. Modern humans did not evolve hunting animals and gathering plants sitting in a comfy lounge chair. Our bodies are designed to move and bend and stretch through a full range of motion on a regular basis.
Recent research has shown that the body maps in brain, which let you know where all your body parts are and how they should move, become ‘blurred’ and unhealthy very quickly. In fact one study indicated that sitting at a computer for as little as 30 minutes blurs the brain maps for your arms, hands neck and back.
The health of our body parts and of our brain works on a ‘move it or lose it’ basis. If we don’t move regularly our brain maps get fuzzy and unhealthy and research shows that the more blurred our brain maps are the more pain and disability we can have.
The solution? Well instead of sitting all day do some regular, and by regular, I mean a few minutes every half an hour (you don’t want a fuzzy brain do you), it doesn’t matter too much what you do as long as you get up and move – but here are some great exercises you can do easily.
Having said that a fantastic antidote to sitting all day is to learn how to squat!
And that’s why we’ve decided to make this month “Squatober”
I know, I can here you now- “ but I’ve got a dicky knee, back, ankle.. (insert body part here) and I haven’t been able to squat since kindergarten.
There are many variations and ways to scale a squat that most people will be able to do to get the benefits of this great whole body exercise.
In my next post I’ll go over the many benefits of squatting and some of the variations to try.
Squatober is here!!
Who is up to the challenge and getting involved with us this October?
Attached to this email you will find our first Newsletter of an upcoming series dedicated to Squatting. This one highlights the health effects of too much time spent sitting.
Set your own challenge, you can do 5 in a break away from your computer, 10 a day, 1000 by the end of the month! You can only benefit from it!
Who doesn’t love a competition right?
We will be giving away a Foam Roller to a randomly selected person who is getting amongst Squatober and tagging #lccsquatober on Instagram.
Don’t worry you’re not in it alone, we will be doing it here too! You can follow us on Instagram to keep updated.
Lane Cove Chiropractic
