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Cattledog

(6,341 posts)
Mon Sep 4, 2017, 12:04 PM Sep 2017

Get Off The Couch Baby Boomers, Or You May Not Be Able To Later.

Count the number of hours you sit each day. Be honest.

"If you commute an hour in the morning and hour after work — that's two hours, and if you sit at an eight-hour-a-day desk job that's 10," says epidemiologist Loretta DiPietro of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.

"Then you come home at, say, 6 p.m., eat dinner and crash into your recliner for another three to four hours," says DiPietro. "That's 13 to 14 hours of sitting."

Being immobile like that for many hours each day does more than raise the risk of a host of diseases. DiPietro and her colleagues have good evidence that, as the years wear on, it actually reduces the ability of older people to get around on foot at all.

In a study of sitting and walking ability that surveyed people ages 50 to 71 across 8 to 10 years, those who tended to sit the most and move the least had more than three times the risk of difficulty walking by the end of the study, when compared to their more active counterparts.

Some ended up unable to walk at all. The study appears in the current issue of The Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/09/04/547580952/get-off-the-couch-baby-boomers-or-you-may-not-be-able-to-later

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Get Off The Couch Baby Boomers, Or You May Not Be Able To Later. (Original Post) Cattledog Sep 2017 OP
I walk 4-1/2 + miles each day no_hypocrisy Sep 2017 #1
Knee circles. klook Sep 2017 #2
Having a dog is helpful--a couple of quick 1/2 to 1 mile trips a day really adds up! flibbitygiblets Apr 2018 #3

no_hypocrisy

(48,963 posts)
1. I walk 4-1/2 + miles each day
Mon Sep 4, 2017, 12:06 PM
Sep 2017

Cardiovascular benefits

Rehabilitation from 15 years ago when I tore my ACL all the way through. Trying to avoid knee arthritis

Good sleep

For muscles to be regularly used

klook

(12,898 posts)
2. Knee circles.
Mon Sep 4, 2017, 12:44 PM
Sep 2017

I learned this in an exercise class - the recommendation was to do 72 of these, in each direction, every day.

I usually do them in groups of 18 or 24 every couple of hours. It's a great way to break up a long computer session, or to do while standing in line or waiting for an elevator.

Helps a lot with circulation, balance, strength, and mobility.

flibbitygiblets

(7,220 posts)
3. Having a dog is helpful--a couple of quick 1/2 to 1 mile trips a day really adds up!
Mon Apr 23, 2018, 02:19 PM
Apr 2018

It's also good for our doggy-owner relationship!

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