Even when practicing sport regularly, we can fall victim to a sedentary lifestyle. Dr Fabrice Kuhn gives us his advice for integrating more movement into our daily lives without necessarily doing more sport.
We often spend long days sitting, at work, at home or in transport. Did you know that you can be both sporty and sedentary? In fact, many people who play sports on the weekend actually move very little during the week, especially if they sit at a desk all day at work. It is this scourge that Dr. Fabrice Kuhn, sports doctor, addresses in his new book intended for the general public: I move more without doing sports. “A sedentary lifestyle takes its toll, said Dr. Kuhn. Cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, metabolic diseases (obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, etc.)… All of these diseases have in common the risk factor of a sedentary lifestyle. »
More than 8 hours spent in a sitting position in a day, you are sedentary. Even if you do a workout in the evening or morning, it doesn’t make up for all your sedentary time during the day. It is essential to maintain mobility throughout the body, otherwise we risk losing muscle function. Dr Fabrice Kuhn gives an example: “When your arm is in a cast, your muscles melt. When you remove the cast your arm is free, of course, but it is weak, stiff and not very functional. It regressed in the absence of a signal (the constraints). It doesn’t take much to lose functionality. For your entire body, it’s the same thing! »
The WHO recommends 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week for adults. However, even when reaching this dose of sport, it is possible to be a “sedentary worker”, if the activity is poorly distributed throughout the week and day. This is why in his book, Dr. Kuhn offers a four-week program to get back into action and move more on a daily basis. It gives many ideas for simple, accessible activities illustrated by diagrams, but also offers more advanced challenges.
Read: Sedentary lifestyle: 8 tips to get your life moving (subscribers)
Here are three habits to adopt to add more movement to your days.
Habit 1: get up every 30 minutes
If necessary, set an alarm every 30 minutes, get up and walk around for at least a minute. At work, go drink, see your colleagues, make a phone call standing up… It may seem trivial, but “This is enough to revive your body and get it out of the “crusting” zone. Stand for a few minutes and sit down again, advises Fabrice Kuhn. You have already made an anti-sedentary lifestyle gesture. »
Stand for a few minutes and sit down again
Habit 2: climbing the stairs
Do you have stairs at home or in your building? Perfect ! The staircase is a very good tool for doing various short exercises. In addition to getting into the good habit of using the stairs over the elevator or escalators, use your stairs to move more.
In his book, Dr Kuhn gives tips for doing “sports snacks”, particularly with stairs. “Sports snacks are HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) type sports microsessions. It involves carrying out a few intense and brief fractions of effort. »
Read: High-intensity interval training: ideal for beginners
Here are two ways to make a sports snack with stairs:
- a short and efficient sprint : 3 x 20 seconds of sprinting on the stairs + 2 minutes of recovery between each. Allow 2 minutes of warm-up at the beginning + 3 minutes of cool-down at the end;
- going back and forth on the stairs (ideal before a meal for better blood sugar control!): 3 x 1 minute back and forth as quickly as possible. 2 minutes of recovery between each effort. Allow 2 minutes of warm-up at the beginning + 3 minutes of cool-down at the end.
Habit 3: walking
In the evening, instead of watching television, take a walk around your neighborhood! At noon after a meal, walk! And to make progress, use a smartwatch or an app on your smartphone to count your steps. The recommendations are 10,000 steps per day for adults under 60 and 8,000 steps per day for those over 60.
“Please note that there are also applications that reward your steps (like WeWard, available on Android and Apple). All you have to do is install the application on your smartphone and walk to collect the rewards, explains Fabrice Kuhn. It’s a great tool to motivate yourself and make your efforts even more fun. »
