Sometimes I’m glad I don’t attend some talks at the fitness conventions I attend. The report from this one sounds like it would have been rather depressing to hear in person. This one was given at the ACSM Health and Fitness Summit last month by Len Kravitz, Ph.D., a well-known expert when it comes to the physiology of exercise. He reported on the new science of sedentary behavior referred to as “Inactivity Physiology.”
Ugh.
Inactivity Physiology isn’t necessarily about what exercise and the lack of exercise does to a body. It’s about what happens when you SIT for the majority of your waking hours.
We all kind of do that, don’t we? (Well, most of us do, now that we aren’t responsible for feeding the horses, milking the cows, tending the fields, thatching the roof, or hunting for food.)
Apparently, regular exercise for 30-60 minutes three times a week isn’t enough to fully combat the effects of SITTING for the massive entirety of the remaining time. Nope; that inactivity causes a dramatic drop in an enzyme (lipoprotein lipase) that regulates blood fats. In particular, the lipoprotein enzyme captures fat from the blood and uses it as fuel.
Which, in turn, results in higher and higher levels of all the bad stuff: triglycerides, cardiovascular disease, and lower levels of the good (happy!) cholesterol. All that stuff we as people living with diabetes need to WAGE A WAR against in our bodies.
Turns out, we’ll need to wage that war STANDING UP instead of SITTING DOWN. No question.
It makes me want to figure out a way to rig your computer chair to dump you right this minute as you read this so you will spend less time today simply SITTING.
I’d keep typing, but that would encourage you to stay and read. I’m hoping you GET UP and GET GOING even if it’s for a teeny trip around the office/house/room.
Go for it!!! We all need it!
