10 Ways to Stay Active in Prolonged Sitting

Ergonomic sitting is not a stationary sitting posture. It is designed to be a position of activity, where our body is active in productive performance. Our body needs continuous movement for balancing our spine on the pelvis, plus moving our upper and lower limbs in functionally active movements.

Attention is being drawn to the fact that we are doing to much sitting and not enough time spent on staying active. It translates into consuming more than we are burning off in energy; leading to an inactive, overweight population with rapidly increasing medical problems. If we want to remain healthy and more activity; then we need to be creative about the way we physically move, for activating movements.

Here are 10 tips that will stop you from sticking to your seat, when prolonged sitting. This does not replace activity, but it is hopefully a trigger that encourages more activity in your life. Try them out and you may be surprised that you actually enjoy movement!

1. Start with a yoga stretch that wakes up the whole upper body using the muscles and joints of the upper arms.
Place your hands in a prayer position in front of your body. Now bring your finger tips towards you and stretch your hands up and out into a wide arc that stretches your whole upper body. Synchronize your breathing so that as you breathe, you stretch your body up and out, feeling the stretch in your upper body. Then as you breathe out, your body relaxes back into sitting on your pelvic bones, returning the prayer position. You will feel calmer and ready to face your day in the sitting position.

2. Always remember to sit on your pelvic bones with your ankles, knees and hips at a 90 degree angle. This position places your sitting balance onto your pelvic bones. Place one hand under your pelvic bone and then repeat the procedure on the other side. You should feel the full weight of your spine sitting under your hands.
Now remove your hands and feel the weight of your back sitting straight without support.

3) You need to create an inconvenient work station, so that everything you have learned to be in close proximity, is going to be inconvenient. You can start by moving the telephone so that it is placed in the opposite corner and means that you have to get up and walk round the desk to answer it.

4) Move your wastepaper basket to the other side of the room, so that you need to stand up and walk over to its location, before placing the trash into it.

5) Place any folders that you are using on the floor by your side, so that you're forced to bend at the hips to place them on the floor. This will exercise your pelvis and create more flexibility in the hips. Remember to keep your feet apart for balance and stability.

6) Place materials that you use regularly on a top shelf, so that you have to stretch and reach to obtain them.

7) Make a point of standing up when someone visits you that creates a courteous welcoming gesture!

8) Place an alarm or timer by your side, so that it beeps every 15 minutes. This reminder will encourage you to get up and move about by standing up and rearrange your clothing, or go to the bathroom on another floor or just get up to find a glass of water.

9) Learn to fidget for exercising your pelvis. Fidgeting stimulates movement into another position that activates tension and relaxation in the core muscles that help move your pelvic bones.

10) Place items that you need to use by each side of you, so that you have to bend sideways to pick them up. This will put your lateral muscles on a real stretch, for picking up the items, but as you repeat the task; it will start to become easier.

Using these movements should energize feelings of activity in your body, so that you will create an appetite for more movement and further activity.