¿Have you stopped to think about how many hours a day you spend sitting, passive, or sedentary?

You wake up in the morning after 8 hours of lying down, you have breakfast and sit, the commute to work, sitting, at your desk for 8 hours (in many cases), sitting, you have lunch, sitting, the commute back home, sitting, dinner, sitting, the couch and a show, sitting. This could easily be the summary of a Monday-to-Friday sedentary routine, but let’s reflect: How different is this from your own routine? Do you do 45–60 minutes of physical exercise 2 or 3 days a week, yet your smartwatch tells you that you don’t even reach 7,000 daily steps? Do you consider that enough to not be seen as a sedentary or passive person? I don’t think so.

To put things in perspective, approximately 31% of the world’s population over age 15 gets insufficient physical activity, and it is known to contribute to the deaths of approximately 3.2 million people every year.

Furthermore, a meta-analysis involving 1 million people revealed that prolonged sedentary behavior over time has detrimental effects on health. Specifically, the results indicated that the risk of mortality from sitting more than 8 hours a day is much higher if no physical activity is performed. Additionally, they concluded that >3 hours a day of television increased mortality regardless of physical activity levels.

Even though the concept of movement and physical activity as a “health pill” is deeply embedded in our consciousness today, in many cases we are still missing that final step in the fight against inactivity. This is why my goal today is to raise even more awareness about the effects that a sedentary lifestyle has on our health and how, despite a lack of time (the biggest limitation to physical activity), we can combat this inactivity.

I don’t want to scare you but, do you know the risks associated with a sedentary lifestyle?

Scientific evidence has repeatedly reported the consequences of sedentary behavior. This lifestyle is associated with the development of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, obesity, dyslipidemia, osteoporosis and low bone density, cancers (breast, colon, colorectal, endometrial, and epithelial ovarian), and premature mortality.

I could continue referencing studies indicating that this lifestyle decreases cerebral blood flow, as well as decreases blood vessel dilation function in the lower body, but I’m not here to overwhelm you—I’m here to tell you how you can avoid all this and improve your health.

So… What can we do to reduce this impact?

The first thing, if you aren’t doing it already, is to establish a moderate-to-vigorous physical exercise routine.

A study published in 2020 involving 60,000 people who followed the recommendations established by the World Health Organization (WHO), with a follow-up of more than 8 years, reported a 40% reduction in mortality risk, independent of other risk factors such as BMI, smoking habits, age, etc.

The recommendations followed in the study and established for adults aged 18-64 by the WHO state that the following should be accumulated throughout the week:

A minimum of 150-300 minutes of moderate aerobic physical activity or a minimum of 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity.

A combination of both activities.

At least two days a week of muscle strengthening of high or moderate intensity to work the major muscle groups.

Second… Stay active and incorporate active mini-breaks!

Turn on notifications on your wearable or set alarms and move every 1 or 2 hours. Several studies have indicated that performing intermittent physical activities can have health benefits such as reducing blood pressure, among other advantages.

Get up, do some squats, some push-ups, take your dog for a walk, climb stairs, or walk around the house and do the laundry. Do whatever you want, but move and try to reach 9,000-10,000 daily steps.

It is indisputable that negative health impacts intensify with an increase in total daily sedentary time. Therefore, it is important to minimize sedentary time as much as possible. Start and set realistic goals, such as increasing 1,000 steps/day every 2 weeks, and use the tools at your fingertips like digital watches that will help you track physical activity and steps on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, as well as learn about other parameters that can provide information about your fitness level, such as VO2max (which we will talk about later).

A change in our habits

You can also consult professionals and seek personalization and individualization. Knowing data about your background, analysis of biochemical parameters like iron, genetic analysis to see if your sporting profile is more endurance or power-oriented, your hourly availability… In other words, the set of data that characterizes you will be key to achieving adherence and being able to maintain the new routine in the long term.

As a final conclusion, we will say that it is better to perform light physical activity than to do nothing; the key is to adapt and increase your level of physical activity as your circumstances allow.

Bibliographic references

• World Health Organization. (2012). Physical inactivity: a global public health problem. 2010. URL www. Who. int/dietphysicalactivity/factsheet_inactivity/en/. Part I APPEND.
• Ekelund U, Steene-Johannessen J, Brown WJ, Fagerland MW, Owen N, Powell KE, et al. Does physical activity attenuate, or even eliminate, the detrimental association of sitting time with mortality? A harmonised meta-analysis of data from more than 1 million men and women. Lancet [Internet]. 2016;388(10051):1302–10. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30370-1
• Patterson R, McNamara E, Tainio M, et al. Sedentary behaviour and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality, and incident type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and dose response meta-analysis. Eur J Epidemiol. 2018;33(9):811-829. doi:10.1007/s10654-018-0380-1
• Katzmarzyk PT, Church TS, Craig CL, Bouchard C. Sitting time and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009;41(5):998-1005. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181930355
• Dunstan DW, Barr EL, Healy GN, et al. Television viewing time and mortality: the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab). Circulation. 2010;121(3):384-391. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.894824
• Zerwekh JE, Ruml LA, Gottschalk F, Pak CY. The effects of twelve weeks of bed rest on bone histology, biochemical markers of bone turnover, and calcium homeostasis in eleven normal subjects. J Bone Miner Res. 1998;13(10):1594-1601. doi:10.1359/jbmr.1998.13.10.1594
• Chrismas BCR, Taylor L, Cherif A, Sayegh S, Bailey DP. Breaking up prolonged sitting with moderate-intensity walking improves attention and executive function in Qatari females. PLoS One. 2019;14(7):1–13
• Paterson C, Fryer S, Stone K, Zieff G, Turner L, Stoner L. The Effects of Acute Exposure to Prolonged Sitting, with and Without Interruption, on Peripheral Blood Pressure Among Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sport Med [Internet]. 2022;52(6):1369–83. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01614-7
• Zhao M, Veeranki SP, Magnussen CG, Xi B. Recommended physical activity and all cause and cause specific mortality in US adults: Prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2020;370:1–10.
• Healy GN, Dunstan DW, Salmon J, et al. Breaks in sedentary time: beneficial associations with metabolic risk. Diabetes Care. 2008;31(4):661-666. doi:10.2337/dc07-2046
• Park JH, Moon JH, Kim HJ, Kong MH, Oh YH. Sedentary Lifestyle: Overview of Updated Evidence of Potential Health Risks. Korean J Fam Med. 2020;41(6):365-373. doi:10.4082/kjfm.20.0165