Because sitting at the desk 8 hours a day, office workers often have less time to exercise. But to avoid sitting-related illnesses, you don't have to exercise like a professional athlete.
Vietnam is one of the 10 countries with the most inactive population in the world (according to the United Nations Population Fund on March 4). In addition, on average Vietnamese people walk 3,600 steps a day, office workers walk only 600 steps while the WHO’s recommendation is 10,000 steps. Therefore, sports activities for office workers are becoming a focus issue concerned by many enterprises in the world in general and Vietnam in particular.
The harm of sitting in one place for a long time
A person sitting still for about 2 hours has already made the body feel uncomfortable and aching. When sitting continuously for 3-4 hours, the process of blood circulation in the body will be affected. Moreover, it also causes many other negative effects on health, specifically:
Loss of posture: Sitting for too long will make it difficult to maintain a correct sitting posture. At this point, you will naturally begin to allow your body to sit arbitrarily, such as bending your back, tilting your body to one side or pouring too much forward. Over time, these wrong sitting postures will greatly affect the spine and damage the gait.
Belly fat accumulation: LPL (lipoprotein lipase) is an enzyme that breaks down fat and converts fat into energy for the body to function. When you sit down a lot, this enzyme is inefficient, so the amount of fat will build up in your body. That is why sitting more makes you more likely to gain belly fat, gain weight and increase your risk of obesity.
Deep vein thrombosis: When you sit all day, blood circulation is not good, so it is easy to get deep vein thrombosis. Deep vein thrombosis is a health complication in which blood clots form in a vein in the leg.
Excercing every day helps prevent many dangerous diseases.
Cancer: Sitting too much for a long time increases the risk of colon, endometrial and possibly lung cancer by 66%. This is the result of a study that surveyed more than 4 million people and found 68,936 cancer cases. Research shows that even people who participate in physical activity but sitting too much during the day still got health affected.
Diabetes: According to a Dutch study, just one hour of sitting will increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. Sitting continuously will affect pancreatic activity, thereby affecting the level of insulin hormone in blood, and easily leading to diabetes.
Depression: A study of more than 9,000 women found that people who sat for long periods of time and were lazy to exercise were much more depressed than those who sat less and exercised. People who sat for more than 7 hours a day had a 47% increased risk of depression than those who sat for 4 hours or less.
Muscles and joints issues: Sitting a lot will put quite a lot of pressure on your legs and hips. Over time, the legs may no longer be flexible and the hips will ache. In addition, when you sit for too long, the muscles in the back and neck that stretch will often cause serious pain in the shoulders, neck and back.
Benefits of walking
According to some health professionals, office workers should spend about 2-3 minutes every hour to walk. They can go to the restroom, walk in place or walk around the hallway. At noon they should go out for lunch, or bring food to the common dining room to exercise, and avoid eating at their desk.
In addition, according to health professionals, walking is an activity with many benefits, helping to avoid many common diseases with office workers, specifically:
Burn calories: Walking can help you burn a lot of calories, maintain or lose weight. The amount of calories burned while walking will depend on many factors, but often 3 times higher than the idle state.
Healthy heart: Walking at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by 19%. And this risk decreases as you walk more than the above figure.
Relieve joint pain: Walking helps protect joints in your knees and hips. Besides, walking also helps reduce pain for people with arthritis. Walking 9-10km per week can prevent arthritis.
FPT Telecom employees walking on the street, contributing to raise funds to build a playground for children.
Strengthen immune system function: A study of 1,000 adults during flu season showed that those who walked at a moderate pace for 30-45 minutes per day had 43% less sick days and no respiratory infections in comparison with non-walkers.
Improve mood: Walking helps your mental health become better. According to a reliable study, walking every day can reduce anxiety, depression and negative moods, while improve your self-confidence.
Prolong life: Walking at a fast pace can extend your life. The researchers found that walking at an average pace compared to a slow pace reduced the risk of death by 20%.
FPT Telecom implements the project of conquering 13 rounds aroung the Earth in 31 days on the FoxSteps app developed by this corporation, taking place from August 6 to September 9, contributing to spreading the healthy lifestyle, encouraging physical exercise and building a sharing spirit. With the message "While my heart is still beating, my legs are still walking", project participants are not only encouraged to exercise themselves in various forms of walking, cycling, jogging, etc., but also contribute their steps to the goal of building 63 playgrounds for the children.
By installing the FoxSteps app on mobile phones, FPT Telecom's employees in 59 cities and provinces walked down the street to start the activity. This project of conquering 13 rounds around the Earth in 31 days of FPT Telecom's staff will be covered by the image of strong steps, spreading the spirit of healthy and useful life. At the end of the project, every kilometer of FPT Telecom's staff will be converted into VND10,000, contributing to the construction fund of 63 playgrounds for children in 59 provinces and cities.
