How to Sit your Way to Long Life TellMeHow

My best friend recently lost her mum to an heart disease. It’s been a great struggle for her and I’ve been quite concerned. I got to know from my friend that she started having the ailment about 3 years ago and it was attributed to her working condition.

Surprisingly, her mom wasn’t the only one with this particular heart condition in her workplace, 3 of her colleagues all females had the same.

This is not a coincidence, let me tell you a little more about where my friend’s mum worked. She worked full time in the Customer Support Department of a busy bank in the USA, 8 am – 5 am, all day sitting attending to calls and emails.

Asides my friend’s plight, I became more concerned because I work in a similar condition, who wants to die young? I don’t, I mean, I’m just 27.

This drove my research into how to sit well and live long. So you’re about to read the outcome of my 3-week extensive research.

Before you continue, please read this to practice, I’m already practicing what I’m about to share with you and I’ve noticed a clear difference in my body’s condition. For instance, my chronic back pain has reduced drastically.

Okay… Let’s dive in!

When is Sitting Deadly?

I never thought sitting down most of the day had so much adverse effect on my body till the incident I narrated above. I know I feel quite some back pains, however, I attributed it to my excess consumption of carbonated drinks.

After reading through a couple of reports on sitting hazards, I became less convinced of my former speculation. Not until I followed the practices in this post, then I noticed a huge difference in the back pain. I became more convinced that it was my sitting condition. At the moment, I’ve not reduced my excess consumption of sugary drinks, yet the back pain is far lesser.

One major effect of a poor sitting condition is chronic back pain, this is because you put so much pressure on your backbone structure when you sit too long, especially in the wrong posture.

Asides this, there are several other bad effects of sitting that you should know:

Diabetes

When you sit, your body does little activity, therefore there’s a minimal use of blood sugar which is meant to be expended on several activities you might be engaged with.

Sitting makes you inactive, therefore your blood sugar shoots up, increasing the risk of diabetes by double

Obesity

Similar to what I explained earlier, your body fat is meant to be used up during activities. When you sit too long, your chances of being obese becomes very high.

My best friend’s mum was actually obese, I can safely attribute it to her poor working condition. Her body fat could have been burnt if she involved herself in more activities like walking, jogging, and so on. She drove a car around, she probably never spent time walking except in her house.

Risk of Heart-related Diseases

Research has proved that many who sit down for most of the day have a higher risk of some cardiovascular disease. Inactivity causes a reduction in the ease of blood flow within your body.

Something very profound I have come to understand is that humans are designed to stand, sitting should be an anomaly – it shouldn’t be doing all day. However, some kind of work unavoidably requires you sitting more often, I’ve got the best way to sit answered in this post, keep reading!

Risk of Having Cancer

A study in Germany showed that obesity and inactivity increase your risk of cancer. It’s very important you keep your body active as we’ll see much more through this post.

Poor Sex Life

Finally, this effect is more on the male’s body, when you sit too long the chances of having an erectile dysfunction is high.

Many other negative effects I’ll really not want to bore you with, however, these are the most popular.

Let me be a little blunt, sitting can kill you! It’s that lethal.

Who would have thought that the convenient position we like to have can be this lethal?

Most unfortunate is that the present generation is at more risk, technology has made things quite convenient, at the comfort of your chair, you can order all your groceries to your front door instead of walking to the store.

How do we then quench this lethal enemy called sitting?

Let’s find out!

What is the Right Way to Sit?

Can we avoid sitting at all, since it is this lethal?

I had this question and I’ll start with answering this.

This answer is Yes, thanks to improved desks that you can easily adjust to a standing position. They are called adjustable standing desks, some require electricity to run, while some are manual.

A visionary company like autonomous.ai has gone further to make these adjustable desks even intelligent. They have a product called Smart Desk, it has an artificial intelligence system that reminds you when you need to stand and you’ve been sitting too long. The table also makes working really seamless. So it’s a good deal if you’re entirely motivated to start standing while you work.

You can also make a regular practice of taking a standing break every hour and walking around, this simple activity maintains your blood flow and prevents some of these diseases.

Asides these 2 solutions, you can also adopt the use of a pedometer- a device that helps you keep a tab on your activity level. it could be a good source of motivation for you to do more healthy activities like walking and jogging.

However, what if you’re like my friend’s late mum who might not be able to stand for most of the day, how can you make the best out of sitting?

What is the Right Sitting Posture?

Don’t just sit carelessly, it hurts your back if you don’t know!

Having the right sitting posture eases lots of pressure from your back. When next you are sitting ensure these are checked.

  • Sit down completely, let your buttock fill the whole seat to the back, this will help you seat straight.
  • Keep your feet flat on the floor surface.
  • Your knee should be at a right angle or right in front of you when you use a footstool
  • Keep your arm straight on the desk
  • Your monitor screen should be at your eye level.

A simple list, right?

If you are using some of the regular office chairs, there’s no way this can be convenient for you to do. Most of them don’t have adjustable parts to keep your body in the perfect sitting position that’s why you should go for a smart chair.

Or should I say an ergonomic chair?

What is an ergonomic chair?

In simple terms, any chair that increases your efficiency when you work can be term ergonomic.

Why I think using an ergonomic chair is the biggest step in sitting one’s way too long life is not far-fetched. These chairs have features that ensure you sit as right as possible. With very easily adjustable parts to meet the checklist of the right sitting position, I mentioned above.

Let’s see some of its features:

Features of an Ergonomic Chair.

Adjustability is the most suitable word to summarize an ergonomic chair, they are made to be all-around adjustable for every inch and angle of preference you might have.

In an ergonomic chair, you can adjust the following to perfectly fit your body to the right sitting posture.

  • Lumbar support
  • Backrest
  • Armrest
  • Headrest
  • Position and height

There you have it, imagine a chair you can easily adjust all these. Well, imagination won’t do until you sit down on one! The comfort and flexibility are extremely pleasurable.

It’s been over a week since I started to practice the right sitting position on an ergonomic chair, my frequent back pain reduced drastically.

Not only did I get an ergonomic chair, I also purchased an ergonomic stool for times of standing. I must say, I haven’t felt healthier in 5 years since I started my present job.

I spread the same influence to all my coworkers, I successfully convinced my boss and he encouraged it.

To share my exact experience, here are the 3 best ergonomic chairs you can have in your workplace.

Best ergonomic chairs for your office from Autonomous

Like I said earlier, my strong motivation to live longer despite the kind of work I do, that demands a lot of sitting, drove me to research and write this.

I clearly figured out that my major solution was simply a chair that would reduce the stress off my back, while still encouraging me to sit well.

I did my research and came across lots of products, however, I bought the ErgoStool and Ergo Chair. I switch in between both and since then I have had a healthy time sitting and when I want to stand, I use the ErgoStool.

Because of this gesture, I’ve influenced all my colleagues, everyone in my office space, I mean everyone ordered for one or both.

You can have a cue of what those chairs involve below, however, I added a third because of its eco-friendliness and sleek design, it’s a great option as well.

I reviewed them according to their appearance, features, and functions.

Ergo Chair

A stunning combination of Italian and Korean design, the ErgoChair is a fully adjustable chair to make your sitting as pleasurable and comfortable as possible. It has a durable construction, extensive customizable features, and breathable fabric.

It’s built to offer 360° degrees of flexible and full-body support in any seated position. This ergonomic chair can be adjusted in virtually every angle and direction. It also has a feature built to relieve strain in your lower back and spine, this works by adjusting the lumbar support to change your sitting position to for relief.

The adjustable lumbar support curves with your back to support your spine, and the tilt-tension mechanism allows you to find your ideal resistance, take care of your body and feel your spirits lift.

This chair can reliably take up to 300 lbs of weight and it comes in various colors.

AvoChair

The AvoChair by autonomous.ai is a modern chair that is manufactured from recycled materials and can be easily broken down into its component parts, nearly all of which are 100% recyclable.

Asides have been environmentally friendly, the AvoChair has a really sleek design while still catering for your sitting needs. Averagely, it can take 250 Lbs of weight.

The AvoChair is quite functional, clean, and minimal. Its minimal design contains a sophisticated mechanism that is built into a sturdy diecast aluminum alloy base. With this feature, you can lock in your preferences to create the perfect reclining tension, arm position, and seat height.

Every element of the AvoChair is designed around the aim of offering maximum support to your body. The elastomeric mesh back gives the perfect balance between support and airy comfort, while the gentle waterfall style roll-off at the front and soft ellipsoid arm pads remove hard edges.

ErgoStool

The Ergostool is a more flexible sitting solution compared to the Ergo Chair and AvoChair. An ErgoStool makes sitting very dynamic, this time, on a stool-like structure. Its dynamic sitting emulates the frequent posture changes we make while standing that naturally tone our muscles.

The ErgoStool has a weighted base that provides great traction on any surface it’s on, allowing for a wide range of motion while sitting.

It’s a really cool way to stand and sit while working, your body stays active through the time. When you want to take a sitting break, you just perch on the ErgoStool for a low impact break from standing. You can reduce the ergonomic stool height completely to the height of a regular desk. It keeps you gently active and enables you to sit comfortably while maintaining a healthy circulation in the whole of your lower body.

Conclusion.

Those are my honest reviews above, you can check out other user’s reviews.

The negative effect of sitting can be reduced, you can live longer while you sit. it just takes knowing how to sit down the right way to live long.

Thanks to these amazing and improved seats, we would have fewer casualties off the lethal comfortable position called sitting.

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