From sitting standard to fitness and muscle standard

We sit too much. The day starts sitting at breakfast, sitting in the car on the way to your sedentary office job. Then sitting home again, sitting at dinner, and spending your evening sitting in front of the TV.

“Hold on!” I hear you thinking. You also work out once a week. Oh really? Performing a few exercises while sitting on the machines at the gym. And maybe you even drive to the gym sitting in your car? Well, I’ll be… So, a lot of sitting. That is the sitting standard, so to speak. All that sitting is accompanied by poor posture. With a rounded back and slumped in your chair. There is nothing wrong with sitting, but there is with sitting too much. It causes strain on muscles and joints due to excessive tension. This leads to RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) complaints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, back, and hips. Break up your sitting and pay attention to your posture to prevent this.

Preventing RSI symptoms caused by excessive sitting

We prevent RSI complaints by interrupting sitting more often and paying attention to good posture. We recommend the following standards to move more if you sit a lot: the health standard, the fitness standard, and the muscle standard.

We will explain what these entail:

The Health Standard:

Getting enough exercise is the best way to prevent RSI complaints. Increased physical activity ensures blood flow to the muscles. The most accessible form of exercise is walking. Even if you already suffer from RSI, walking is the best method of exercise. This is because it relieves pressure on your hands, neck, and shoulders. Daily breaks during lunch, coffee breaks, and after dinner, for example, are a good daily addition. Swing your arms vigorously while walking to ensure blood flow to your arms and fingers as well.

The Fit Standard:

The fitness standard is primarily cardio training, which is the primary way to train your load capacity.
The fitness standard ensures: increased muscle endurance, slower muscle acidification due to an increase in cellular energy factories (mitochondria), and improved blood circulation, which ensures that nutrients are supplied and more waste products are removed.

The Muscle Standard:

The muscle standard means that you regularly perform muscle-strengthening exercises. Weak muscles cause your back and posture to easily assume a slumped, rounded position. This compresses the tendons, bursae, nerves, and blood vessels of the arm. Recovery is hampered by this, resulting in arm pain, tennis elbow, tendonitis, and muscle weakness.

Through muscle-strengthening exercises, the tendons become stronger, your muscles learn to use energy more efficiently, and your metabolism improves.

From flat, fat buttocks to firm, round buttocks

Those who sit consume much less energy than those who move. Let that be clear. Sitting a lot therefore also carries a risk of gaining excess weight. An added benefit is that you make your gluteal muscles lazy and do not train them. Lazy glutes are flabby and not firm. Trained glutes are round and firm. That is good for your hip joint, your posture, and your back, but above all, it looks very good.

Tips to sit less

The negative effects of sitting also apply to people who exercise frequently in addition to sitting a lot. The Dutch government advises people to engage in thirty minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity daily for good health. There are very simple ways to combat sedentary behavior at work, for example by standing up every half hour to get your legs moving. Additionally, it is important not to sit for longer than two hours at a time and to try to move as much as possible, for example by:

• to take the stairs instead of the elevator;
• to go for a lunch walk;
• to make phone calls and hold meetings while standing;
• to get small amounts of drinks more often;
• to make use of dynamic office furniture.

Train in less sitting at MINT Personal Training Delft

Prolonged sitting is a matter of habit. To break this habit, the trainers at MINT Personal Training will teach you how to move more in your daily life. This helps prevent RSI complaints and promotes a strong body with beautiful, round buttocks. Training at MINT Personal Training Delft is an investment in lifestyle, even outside of the workouts. That is certainly a good thing.

Would you also like to be trained to sit less? Then sign up for a free intake and we will contact you for an appointment.