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Physical inactivity - consequences, causes and symptoms
contents
- Dismembered habitat
- Psychic consequences
- Culture faster than evolution
- The body adapts
- Only those who move feel their shackles
- First signs
- Lack of exercise among adolescents
- Lack of exercise makes you fat
- immobility
- What causes a lack of exercise??
- stress
- Too much of the good
- What to do?
Today most of the work is done sitting down, in the office in front of the computer. Many teenagers play with smartphones instead of putting on rubber boots and walking in the woods, their parents sitting in front of the computer after eight hours in the office and ordering pizza instead of buying fresh ingredients and cooking themselves.
Physical inactivity: cause of many diseases. Image: wrinkled grain - fotolia Children have less and less opportunity to engage in physical activity: car stops in the cities, crowded blocks of flats and roads are closing in on the opportunities to let off steam. TV, computer, Facebook and What 's app virtually replace the adventures in the outside world, instead of the clique, the kids in online communities.
Our ancestors had admired the technical support of today's society, but: If the muscles are under-loaded in the long term, we speak of lack of exercise. It has consequences because we have to use all the organs to keep them healthy.
Scientists at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University even found that people who spend more than three hours a day die about three years earlier.
Dismembered habitat
It is cheap, people who do not move too much to assume laziness, free after the neoliberal mantra: Everyone is responsible for themselves. The freedom to act physically, especially in large cities are limited.
Roads cut the radius of action of children in such a way that they can barely avoid the open spaces outside the dwelling without danger. Parents fear for their children on the way to school, and quite rightly so. When children are in their game, they are in real danger of being run over.
People in big cities can rarely afford large gardens. In the two-room apartment overlooking the parking lot of the penny market, there are hardly any opportunities to engage in physical activity.
There are fewer and fewer open spaces. Teenagers who make fires, camp wild, build a raft or run off the beaten track in the forest are almost considered criminals.
Fields sprayed with pesticides and over-fertilized with manure make even rural areas unattractive to children.
Psychic consequences
Lack of exercise clogs the vessels, as a result, the brain is less supplied with blood. Affected suffer from lack of concentration and learning disabilities. Decreases the performance with the lack of exercise, those affected are considered unsportsmanlike and no longer participate in the physical testing of their peers.
Their self-image is endangered, and that quickly causes them to isolate themselves socially. As a result, you may hide even more behind the Playstation, compensate for their frustration by fat and sugar-rich food and get into a vicious circle.
Lack of exercise paralyzes creativity. Creativity is not a purely spiritual process. Creative people use materials from the environment and create something new from it. Graphics programs can not replace painting, carving or pottery. We learn by understanding things in the literal sense. Virtual realities can not replace these things.
To move too little restricts self-employment and prevents self-determination. Who is in full possession of his physical abilities, can at least imagine how he builds a camp in the forest, when his apartment burns down, or how she struggles through, without having Internet.
Curiosity and joy of discovery have a lot to do with movement. When we walk around, we see something new, we discover things on the doorstep, when we go to the front door. Lack of exercise, on the other hand, promotes the need for legitimacy: Anyone who only drags himself off the sofa to bed may find surprises at risk. Life loses its charm, the terror of the ever-same takes the place of the adventure.
Exercise is fun, it feels good to feel our body. When we let off steam, the organism releases hormones, adrenaline and dopamine, endorphins that release feelings of happiness.
Culture faster than evolution
People are by nature runners who hunt and gather. We move on two legs and spend much of our time on the planet, wandering about, searching for honeycombs in hollow trees, digging roots out of the ground, stalking deer, hauling prey into the camp to prepare, to tan hides, or to sew clothes.
As we became settled farmers, most of our lives over thousands of years also meant hard physical work and exercise. Farmers suffered from lack of exercise, sowing grain, harvesting crops, bringing hay into the shed, as well as shepherds hauling their sheep and goats through the mountains in wind and weather.
To move barely was a luxury for priests and nobles living on the work of others: in early modern Italy pale women's skin was considered noble, as were long nails, for it showed that these privileged people did not have to work physically , Obesity also showed that someone belonged to the ruling classes, firstly had much to eat and secondly did not have to physically exert.
Craftsmen, construction workers, foresters, postmen or gardeners do not suffer today from lack of exercise. But physical work has lost importance overall. Most of the work is done on the computer today, even with previously classic body work.
That does not remain without consequences. The body mass index, the relationship between height and body weight has shifted in the last 50 years.
We do not have to prepare our own food or even buy the individual ingredients, we no longer fish the fish but take it out of the freezer and we do not pick the apples from the tree, but throw them in the shopping basket.
Thanks to Amazon we do not even have to go to the bookstore, thanks to online banking no longer to the savings bank, instead of writing a letter and at least to the mailbox to run, we write emails.
With appeals to the bad conscience, it is not done, because even earlier generations, who did not know the temptations of the Internet, usually did not call their body voluntarily.
In the long term evolution will adapt our body to a lack of exercise and industry, for example by changing the position of the pelvis. But our biology lags behind our culture.
But an organism programmed to exercise suffers when it is not required. In the long run, missing movement damages all organs.
Sports scientist Veit Wang says, "When our body does not move, some things develop back. Let's take the skeletal system: The articular cartilage supports the damping and gliding function. It allows the mechanical movement in the joints to run smoothly. If this system works well, it needs some change of movement and recovery. But if we do not move, then this tissue is formed back. The result can be a painful arthritis in which the bones in the joints rub against each other. "
The body adapts
Often, we do not notice the consequences of lack of movement because our need to make something of it aligns with our ability to do so. A young body can compensate for lack of exercise better than an old one, and that's why we often blame our age for performance degradation. Our declining skills are barely older, at least not before the age of 40, but are a long-lasting consequence of a lack of training. The body itself regenerates as we age.
Age means, however, that the effects of a lack of training become clear: if I did not move enough for a few years, maybe I would not jog through the park - if I have hardly moved for twenty or twenty years, serious illnesses may be episode.
In addition, many people in their 20s generally move more than in the 40s or 50s. Movement is not only the classic of a "healthy way of life" such as mountain hiking, but also "to travel through world history", looking for a place to sleep on the Schuler with no money on the backpack, moving parcels from one city to another, at parties the nights Dancing through, marking the station with the gang at the station square, or strolling through the nights in search of sexual partners, prevents a lack of exercise.
For years, we still do not feel sick when we get out of breath more quickly and climb the stairs and the radius continues to shrink. In addition, it is hard to tell whether we unconsciously adapt to our sinking abilities or just choose the more comfortable way. Let's go shopping at 40 by car because we had only one bike at 20 or struggled riding too much?
Only those who move feel their shackles
Often, we do not notice the consequences of a lack of exercise until we do not demand our body. Who jogs in front of the television after years, gets side prints; those who supplement the path from the office to the sofa and from there to the pub with weekly weight training, feel the first time pain in muscles that he did not even know existed before.
As a problem most lack of exercise only when they need to see the doctor, because they suffer from high blood pressure or back pain. The alarm bells were ringing much earlier.
First signs
1) It is difficult for us to climb stairs.
2) If we go down a staircase, we have to hold on.
3) Mountain hikes are bothering us, as are cycling on slopes.
4) A short sprint takes us out of breath.
5) We barely manage to get the shopping basket into the car.
6) Digging a bed, cutting the hedge, or hacking wood is over-strenuous.
7) For city tours we shimmy from one bistro to the next.
8) We have problems tying our shoes while standing.
9) When we get up from a chair, we support ourselves.
10) If we stand on one leg for more than a few seconds, we support ourselves.
11) Even if we go for a long time, we need to rest.
We should clarify if we may be suffering from a serious illness. But if that is not the case, and our everyday life consists of sitting, whether in the office, at coffee, watching TV or in the car, then sport is announced.
Age is no excuse. Although the physical performance increases in the 20s and decreases from about the age of 40, but this only means that we have to take more care of our body with increasing age.
With a little training, we can also run 50 three kilometers in 30 minutes, climb to the third floor without taking a break, and turn our shoulder joint 360 degrees.
Lack of exercise among adolescents
A new phenomenon is lack of movement of teens of the generation smartphone. Sports scientists estimate that three-quarters of 13- to 15-year-olds move too little. Also responsible are "helicopter parents" who want to look after their offspring in all circumstances.
But if Mum and Dad drive to school and pick them up, and who spends the afternoons between SMS, Playstation and homework, he does not ask for his body. Many young people today no longer act in a way that was self-evident in the 1980s.
As children rummage in the mud, build tree houses, drive as a teenager on a bike to the neighboring village to meet the clique is for some big city children today a story from foreign times.
Programs in school and society can counteract the lack of exercise among young people. It would be possible, for example, to make physical acting more influential in the school: field trips in biology lessons, living history in history, work with wood, stone or clay in art - there are many possibilities.
Lack of exercise makes you fat
Our genetics are not prepared to choose anywhere between Big Mäc and frozen pizza at any time. As a hunter-gatherer, we sometimes struck so much prey that we could consume it for weeks, then again we found a long time except a few berries and roots nothing.
Deposits in the arteries due to lack of exercise. Image: psdesign1 - fotolia Although genetics has adapted over the millennia to the diet of farmers, but not to constantly available fast food. Our body creates reserves with which to survive the lean times.
If we move too little with a concomitant excess of calories, fats and carbohydrates, the body creates fat reserves but does not consume them. This overloads the cardiovascular system. The consequences are high blood pressure, diabetes and heart attack.
immobility
Not only our modern living environment leads to lack of exercise, but also neurological diseases and physical disabilities, accidents and obesity.
Anyone who suffers from arthritis or hip fractures, gets used to a gentle posture and avoids movements. The affected people are getting weaker physically, and that's why they move less and less.
If depression and loss of appetite are added, then those affected hardly move at all.
What causes a lack of exercise??
The most common result of lack of exercise is chronic back pain. Lack of exercise is one of the Big Three, which cause civilization diseases in addition to smoking and unhealthy diet, it goes along with the other two often.
Restricted movement promotes hypertension, diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease and allergies. He also increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease. The risk of death from chronic lack of exercise increases by 56% within 20 years, which is 4% more than the risk of smoking.
If you move too little, you start to lose fat. The ratio of muscle and fat in the body changes, with the fat dwindling the stamina and strength, it increases the risk of metabolic problems.
Lack of exercise weakens the body's immune system. People who move too little often become ill: viruses and bacteria are more likely to invade and those affected become susceptible to allergies.
Those who lose strength due to the lack of exercise can keep their spine upright for less, the joints become unstable, increasing the risk of injury, and the weakened heart muscle increases the risk of an infarct.
Sitting in the same position all day leads to poor posture, the possible consequences are not only back pain, but also a herniated disc.
When we sit a lot and move a little, neck and neck become tense. The tension pulls up to the head and we have a headache.
If we do not stress the heart, we weaken the heart muscle. Through sport, we now overload this weakened heart.
When we move, we burden the internal organs to ensure their circulation. Lack of exercise, on the other hand, leads to bowel sounds, constipation and other digestive problems.
Obesity is firstly caused by poor diet and secondly by too little exercise. When we barely move, we consume more energy than the body consumes. The result is a constant sense of inertia - we feel impulsive and often suspect mental stress, even though the cause is physical.
Diabetes 2, diabetes also affects more and more young people. The main causes are overweight and lack of exercise.
Bone atrophy breaks down the bone substance. Those affected suffer fractures more frequently. Bones build up substance when the muscles are stressed. Therefore, lack of exercise is also one of the triggers here.
Osteoarthritis occurs when the cartilage returns and the joints wear out. This happens again if we move too little.
stress
Lack of exercise is not a cause of stress, but movement is the natural response to a stressful situation. Stress is a state of emergency of our brain chemistry and necessary to counter dangers. Hormones are in full swing and we can do more than usual.
Unfavorable combination of lack of exercise and stress. Image: Focus Pocus LTD - fotolia In our natural history, for example, the brains spilled out when suddenly a lion stood opposite us. In a flash, our unconscious decided whether we fought or fled. As a result, the hormones were degraded again.
Today we are under stress because we can not pay bills, appointments overlap, annoys the landlord or the neighbor shows us to the police. But the brain does not know that, and the stress hormones do not decide between the attacking lion and the regulatory agency.
That's why it helps to respond to the stress we did in our earliest times - physically. Running through the woods, roaring, chopping wood or an hour of strength training reduce the hormones.
Too much of the good
Former Couchpotatoes, but also ex-junkies and dry alcoholics sometimes resemble converts who act radically the opposite of their previous lifestyle.
Not only too much, but too little exercise is harmful. The body wants to be challenged, but not overburdened. He needs employment as well as the time to regenerate.
Anyone who thinks that after years on the sofa between cigarettes, chips and alcohol, they have to walk ten kilometers every morning without having prepared their body for it, harms their body a second time.
Even those who constantly have to drag heavy at work ruin their bones, their joints and their metabolism.
If symptoms of lack of exercise announce, without a serious illness is the cause, we should take it easy.
Instead of going straight with the city marathon, it is enough to go for an hour twice a week or to ride a bicycle twice a week. How much and how long light sport does us good, the body tells us. As long as we feel well, everything is fine.
If the lack of exercise combined with a high overweight, should we do without running because we use it so much to the joints. Swimming, on the other hand, reduces weight, and instead of walking through the woods for an hour a week, we can spend time doing water aerobics.
What to do?
If you work for eight hours a day on the desktop, the advice is not much to jog. But many exercises can also be easily inserted while working.
For example, you can lift your feet and extend your knee. If you do this regularly, they call for your thigh muscles.
You can stand on tiptoe in between and then raise and lower the body and then keep on tiptoe. This is how they train their calves.
When you sit on the chair and keep your back straight, pull your knees up until you get over the edge of the chair and the abdominals tighten.
Do you work in an open-plan office or do you need to go to an authority? Just go up one floor and back again. This can also be repeated, for example, if you have to wait at the public office.
Put your hands in your lap as if you were praying. Then push your hands apart. This will train your chest muscles, biceps and triceps.
Press the palms against the underside of the desk.
Tighten the muscles of the buttocks, relax the muscles and tense again. During the lunch break, you can take a walk. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)
Specialist supervision: Barbara Schindewolf-Lensch (doctor)