Benefits of an
Active Life
More and more people are
living sedentary lifestyles, either because of their jobs, or because of the
latest technologies that are keeping us glued to our seats. An article in LifeSpan magazine states that a sedentary lifestyle can be defined as a disease,
“Sitting disease, or a sedentary lifestyle, is a term used to describe
individuals whom engage in prolonged periods of sitting or overall inactivity.
While sitting down all day may seem harmless, you may be surprised by the
negative impact it has on your health.” After long years of inactivity, it is
likely that a person can develop serious illnesses like diabetes, cancer and
heart disease amongst others.
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| Taken from http://www.medicaldaily.com/more-americans-lived-sedentary-lifestyle-2014-number-physically-active-hits-lowest-6-330788 |
It is not something that
we can afford to take lightly. The number of people who are living sedentary
lifestyles has increased outrageously in the last few years. Medical Daily exposes a research where they found that, “Out of the 292 million
Americans aged 6 years and older, 83 million are living a sedentary lifestyle.
Since 2009, an additional 7.9 million Americans have climbed onto the couch and
left their sneakers by the wayside.” It is alarming how even kids are
continuously preferring screens than to go outside to play. For adults it is
worse, specially with all the different types of jobs there are currently, that
require us to work eight hours straight sitting on a chair. Here is an infographic of the sitting disease:
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| Taken from http://www.lifespanfitness.com/workplace/resources/articles/sitting-all-day-is-taking-a-toll-on-your-body |
We really need to do
something, and we can start with ourselves. We do not have to go for a 10 miles
run everyday in order to be able to step out of the sedentary lifestyle, we
only have to try to increase our active life by at least going for a short walk
three times a week. A more active life does not specify what type of activity
we realize, it can go from walking to swimming, dancing, running, etc. It is
better to be active for 20 minutes every day, than to not be active at all. The benefits of an active kind of life are
demonstrated to be tangible for everyone.
Even the Mayo
Clinic staff has come up with a list of benefits for an active lifestyle. They
encourage their patients saying that, “Want to feel better, have more energy
and perhaps even live longer? Look no further than exercise. The health benefits
of regular exercise and physical activity are hard to ignore.” They expose that
exercise is beneficial for weight control, and health conditions and diseases. Many
people think that after exercising, they will feel tired and won’t have energy
for the rest of their day. Nevertheless, that is just a myth, since exercise actually
boosts mood as well as energy by delivering oxygen and nutrients to your
tissues and helping your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. It also
serves as a sleep promoter, and overall as a help to live a longer life.
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In general, living an
active life has benefits for every part of our lives, so we really need to
start thinking ahead and help ourselves feel better. We have our near and
distant future in our hands.
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