People are always looking for a way to improve their health, especially if it doesn't take up time. Standing more often instead of sitting is a greate way to lose weight and improve your overall health. Standing burns more calories while strengthening your muscles and increasing circulation. It can even help to prevent osteoporosis. This article will further describe the benefits of standing more often and also show you how to easily fit it into your day.
Burn More Calories
Standing burns more calories than sitting. Sitting uses about 80 cal per hour whereas standing will use about 140. Imagine that you are able to stand for an extra four hours per day that's an extra 240 calories that you'll be burning every day. Over an entire year this could lead to weight loss of up to 9kg if your food intake doesn't go up. The extra energy usage is caused by the work your muscles have to do in order to keep you upright.
Strengthen Your Muscles
When standing your core muscles and legs are constantly working to stop you from falling over. It's not intense work but it can have a significant impact over time. The muscles that support the ankles and knees will become stronger, which means you're less likely to have problems with your joints when exercising. The contracting of the muscles also helps to increase circulation.
Improve Circulation
Sitting is very bad for blood circulation in the legs. The angle of the legs and the weight on the seat can both restrict blood flow through the veins. Standing fixes this problem and also uses the muscles in the legs more which stimulates blood flow.
Prevent Osteoporosis
Weight bearing activities have been shown to prevent Osteoporosis (1). The action of muscles pulling on bones can strengthen and build the bone matter. Intense exercise builds up the bones faster , but you can stand for a lot longer and it's easy to incorporate into your daily routine.
How to fit it into your Day
Everyone is busy these days, but it's easy to find more time in the day where you could be standing. If you have a desk job that's the obvious place to start as you could be sitting at your desk for up to 8 hours a day. You can change to an adjustable desk that allows you to work at a computer or write while standing up. When you first start off you'll probably get tired quite easily by standing, so just gradually build up the amount of time that you stand for. That's why an adjustable desk is important as it means you don't have to go cold turkey. Some other ideas are standing while reading, waiting or talking.
So you can see there are numerous benefits to be had by standing more each day. You might also find that you can concentrate better while standing up. If any of these benefits are appealing, I encourange you to experiment with the idea ... you can start right away but standing for an extra 30 minutes everyday this week.
References
1) University of Arizona - Bone Builders
