Want to be fit? Move more and sit less

on September 08, 2011 at 12:07 PM

Joe MartinParticipants in Joe Martin's Huntsville Boot Camp for Women go through a workout. (Huntsville Times photo)

HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA - Did you know that even if you exercise every day, you can undo all your hard work if you sit down for the rest of the day?

It sounds strange, but a lot of people don't move very much even when they come to the gym.

See if this scenario sounds familiar to you. Joe Smith sits down for his desk job for eight hours, sits in his car on the way to the gym, circles the parking lot to find the closest spot to the gym door, sits down or lies down on machines for an hour, sits in the car on the way home, and then sits on the couch for the rest of the night when he gets home. It is no wonder that an estimated 90 percent of the population will experience back pain at some time in their lives.

Humans were not meant to sit down for the majority of the day. You were made to move. Too much sitting causes tight hip flexors, tight hamstrings, glute muscles to atrophy, shoulders to round forward, and neck to jut forward. Look at your posture as you read this and see how you're doing. Maybe this slumping forward is nature's way of returning us to the slumped- over Cro-Magnon man on the evolution chart.

Then, there is the decreased calorie burn from staying seated all day. A person who goes from an active job to a sedentary job will gain an average of 18 pounds in the first eight months on the job. You should strive to move as much as possible during the day. You will be amazed at the changes. Your energy levels will increase, it will be easier to breathe, weight loss will be easier, and you won't be as stiff when you decrease the amount you sit and increase the amount you move.

We need to learn how to move again, not only in our lives but also in our workouts. Your workouts should include all seven basic movements. These movements are squat, lunge, bend (deadlift for example), twist (torso rotations), push (shoulder press), pull (row), step (running). Some of these movements can be done with machines, but machines have a set pattern of movement that does not fit every person.

The benefits of doing these basic movements include better results from training large muscle groups and improved strength and balance from training stabilizer muscles, which makes everyday tasks much easier. There is more of a learning curve when doing free-weight and/or body-weight exercises, but these can be easily learned with proper instruction.

So your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to move more, sit less, and start including the seven basic movements in your workouts.

Joe Martin is a personal trainer for the Huntsville Adventure Boot Camp for Women. He can be reached at 256-468-7146 or