Joy Journal

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A “Movement Snack”

I wish I had come up with this one

I was recently reading an article by the American Institute of Stress about how exercise helps with stress. It suggested reframing the concept of exercise to a “movement snack.” What a great idea!

The bottom line is that we all need to move more, even if you think have an active lifestyle or regularly exercise. Check out these statistics related to “sitting disease” or a sedentary lifestyle.

Sitting 6 hours/day with low physical activity increases mortality rate by 71%
Sitting 5-6 hours/day with 4-7 hours/week of vigorous exercise increases mortality rate by 50%

Dang! I thought my weekly exercise was helping. Apparently, it’s not enough. But movement snacks could help, and you can “consume” an unlimited amount of these types of treats.

I will be adopting two new practices:

Sit for 20, move for 10
Up for 30, down for 30 while I work

You could also stretch for 5 minutes in between meetings. Do 50 squats while waiting for the microwave to heat up your lunch. Walk during calls. Start team meetings with 30 jumping jacks. There are all kinds of ways that you could snack. Enjoy!

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