According to the Sleep Foundation, studies have shown that small electronic devices ‘emit sufficient light to miscue the brain and promote wakefulness’. My inadvertent discovery hasn’t benefitted my sleep patterns simply because I don’t sit on Twitter all night long. And when I’m well rested, I definitely run better. Consequently I've been forced to concentrate on a good book instead of scrolling through Twitter into the late hours. Reluctant to keep hopping in and out of bed, I started leaving my phone in the hall all the time and sleeping naked (in a gadget sense - it's cold this time of year). I moved into a new flat last year and, due to a lack of available plug sockets, I was forced to charge my iPhone outside my bedroom. The best and perhaps most profound adjustment that I have made to my fitness of late has even less to do with running and actually came about by accident. Try ‘Straighten Up’ - a simple, three-minute exercise programme for all ages, designed to help strengthen the spine, improve posture and help joints.Use the stairs instead of the lift or escalator, get off your bus/train/tube a stop earlier and walk or take a walk during your lunch break. Look for small opportunities to exercise during the day.Stand up to stretch, change position and walk around a little. Try not to sit for more than 30-40 minutes.The British Chiropractic Association offers the following advice for combatting a sedentary lifestyle: “The more adjustable your desk set-up is, the more likely you are to find a position that suits you." “The ideal situation would be a desk set-up that allows you to stand as well as sit, as this gives you the option to change position regularly,” says BCA chiropractor Tim Hutchful. It’s all very well to recommend you move about more, but unless you’re employed as a gym instructor or prepared to sacrifice your weekends for a shop job, staying active all day can prove difficult. The movement of the spine and shoulders stops muscle cramps and aches - and the weight is moved over the surface of the cartilage, stopping just one area being pressurised.” The brain gets perfused with an increased flow of blood with more oxygen and the movement of the body stimulates the brain by a system called the 'reticular activating system'. Moving enough to increase the heart rate improves the health of the heart and also the arteries by increasing blood flow. Moving the legs pumps the blood up the veins back to the heart. “Of course if you are standing at work, this is easier to do naturally. “Whether stranding or sitting, the body needs regular movement,” adds Professor Whiteley. Standing very still is almost as bad for the brain, spine and shoulders as sitting.” “Although you use more calories standing than sitting, if you stand still you have a greater pressure of blood in your veins at your ankles and also the cartilage in your joints gets squashed and can get damaged. As with all muscles, this exercise keeps it healthy as long as it is done regularly.”īut for office workers, is simply standing up at your desk the key to getting fitter? “Standing at work has some advantages, but is not the answer,” says Professor Whiteley. During exercise, the heart can increase its pumping from 5 litres per minute to 30 litres a minute. Our hearts and blood vessels (arteries and veins) only stay healthy if we have bouts of exercise. However the effects on the cardiovascular system are profound. “Weight gain is the most obvious health risk. “A sedentary lifestyle is associated with many health problems,” says Professor Mark Whiteley. Even if you go for one really great run a day, once you add up desk time, eating time and TV watching time, that’s still another 14 hours spent sat on your bum. The average person spends more than half of their day sitting. But can standing up a bit more really make that much difference to your running, or was my PB just a happy coincidence? As a result, I am proud to say I shaved 25 minutes off my PB at the Istanbul Marathon in November. Although I haven’t technically spent any more time training than usual, being on my feet and keeping active all day has definitely strengthened my legs. Despite only working a couple of shifts a week, much to my surprise standing up for eight hours a day had a dramatic impact on my running. I recently took a weekend job in a shop to supplement my income. Here are some run hacks I discovered by accident that will hopefully improve your running life too. However, there are a few simple measures you can take to benefit your health and improve your running in the process. It’s one sport where you have to train properly or you’re going to suffer. There are no shortcuts you can’t cheat at running. OK, I may have told you a little white lie.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |