What’s your lifestyle choice, caveman theory and Is prevention better than the cure?
It’s often said that if exercise were a pill, it would be one of the most cost-effective drugs for curing ailments ever invented!
In this day in age people are more sedentary than ever before with lots of people sat in a chair of some sort for business or leisure most of the time. Be it an office chair, car seat or just your sofa people spend a lot more time in this day in age just sitting! So what effects does the sedentary lifestyle have on our bodies?
I always like to refer back to the caveman when thinking about our body’s design and how we should move, eat and go about our daily business. Our bodies are built to and have the potential to run and hunt animals, walk miles, lift heavy objects, swim through rivers and climb trees! Not simulating this sort of activity at least a few times a week will have health implications as your body’s muscles, skeleton and heart and lungs will not be getting used as they should.
What our bodies are not designed for is sitting in an office chair for eight hours a day, then to sit in a car seat for 2 hours a day and finally finish the day sitting in an armchair for three hours a day! In doing this you are not moving in a way you were designed to which will have implications on your health. There is an old saying, if you don’t use it, you lose it and this holds true when it comes to exercise.
By being sedentary and doing a lot of sitting you will firstly lose bone density. By not doing any sort of lifting exercises your bones will be more susceptible to breaks on impact and in later life, this can lead to osteoporosis. Not doing any sort of lifting will also impact the condition of your muscles. They will not be able to lift heavy objects and will strain easier than someone who uses them regularly. Not using them will mean they are underdeveloped, untoned and prone to injury if the occasion arises when you need to lift a little more weight than normal!
In caveman day’s people would have carried animals they have hunted back to their cave to survive, in more recent time’s farmers and other manual labourers would have not suffered with diseases linked to inactivitiy such as osteoporosis and weak muscles as they would have carried heavy objects to make a living. This day in age there are fewer manual labour jobs so the lifting can be simulated in a gym using resistance training.
These days there is very little need to run at all. You will hopefully never be put in a life-threatening situation where you need to sprint for your life from a big predator, and your food does not run away from you so you don’t have to use your cardiovascular system to (heart and lungs) to provide more oxygen to your muscles to give chase!
Although there is no immediate danger to your life such as Saber Tooth Tigers running around, by not using your cardiovascular system and increasing your heart rate with exercise on a regular basis you run the risk of becoming ill through other dangers. Coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease could affect you if you do not increase your heart rate at least a few times a week.
People should think of the gym as an opportunity to do what activates your body should do naturally even if it’s just for a few hours a week. Our bodies are designed to be worked in order to function efficiently and stay healthy. By not doing so and being sedentary i.e. doing very little physical activity will have health implications. Our heart rates should be increased and weight should be moved at least a couple of times a week. Less sitting and more doing!
Move and be healthy, remember prevention is better than the cure,
Danny Allan
Personal Trainer @ Swift Fitness York.
