Rant #1,431: All-Day Sit-In

As a writer, probably the part of my body that gets the biggest workout during the week are my fingers.

Right now, as I type this, I am giving them a bit of a workout.

But the rest of my body ... forget about it.

I sit all day, and I do mean all day.

I sit at the kitchen table to eat my breakfast in the morning, and during the week, I then go and sit by my computer to type these Rants out.

Than I sit in the living room watching the TV and reading the morning paper.

I then drive to work, and sit in the driver's seat of course.

The worst thing is that I sit all day at work, and I do mean all day.

I get into work slightly past 6:30 in the morning, and pretty much except for a few instances--bathroom breaks, going to the printer to retrieve my work, etc.--I sit until 5:30 p.m., when I leave work, and get in my car to drive home.

Yes, I sit all day.

The following study was done for people like me.

More than 3,000 adults took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and wore accelerometers that tracked their levels of physical activity.

Those running the survey wanted to see whether longer durations of low-intensity activities, such as standing or making a bed, and light-intensity activities, such as slow walking and light cleaning of a home, can extend the life span of people who are sedentary for more than half of their waking hours.

What they found is that for those that sit all day, a walk for maybe few minutes during the day will prolong their lives, and hold off on diseases that curtail life, including diabetes.

I pretty much thought that this was a no brainer. Some type of exercise is better than none, even if you aren't thinking of it as exercise.

For example, on the weekend, in particular on Saturday, I am far from sedentary. I do the shopping for my family, and in particular, when my wife can't help me because she is at work, I have to do it alone, and I get my walking in at the supermarket.

Then I come home, and bring all the groceries up a flight of stairs to our living quarters.

Let me tell you, you go up and down those stairs several times with heavy bags, and you do get a workout.

But admittedly, the rest of the day, even on Saturday, I do sit around.

And if we have nothing doing on Sunday--like this past Sunday, when my wife was working, and she also worked on Saturday, too--all I do is sit around.

And when I sit around, I eat, nosh, munch, whatever you want to call it, on everything including cookies and chips.

I have to move around a bit more, I know I do, but when it comes to exercise, yes, I am lazy.

I admit it.

Months ago, when I was diagnosed with a pinched nerve in my neck, I did everything I could to alleviate the pain, short of taking any type of medication. I went for physical therapy two or three times a week, and I did my exercises at home.

When the pain was alleviated, I didn't have to go to physical therapy anymore, but I continued doing my exercises at home for at least the next year.

Then, I simply dropped doing the exercises, wanting to see if my body could withstand not working out anymore.

It did, so I haven't done any exercises in probably a year and a half.

The pain--or at least what I felt initially--has pretty much gone, but not entirely.

I do feel some pain, or at least discomfort, every once in a while.

I did think about doing my exercises again, but no, I have not started them up at any time.

But the more I sit, the more I become a lump, and I know that.

I am not going to tell you that I am going to start exercising again, because that would be a lie.

But at least it has gotten my mind going again on this topic, and maybe, just maybe, I will try to move around at work a little more.

I don't know how I am going to do this--the bathroom is like 20 steps away from my desk, maximum--but I will try. There really is nowhere to walk here, other than to my car, but let me see if I can come up with something.

But again, I am lazy when it comes to this, and I would not be surprised if this lump just gets lumpier.

Just call me "Lumpy Larry."

It fits.