29. Why One Workout Can’t Undo A Day Of Sitting

A strong workout feels amazing, but what happens to your health when the rest of your day is spent in a chair? We dig into why the benefits of a single training session can be evanescent when your default is sedentary and how tiny, consistent bouts of movement change the story. Drawing on research about breaking up long sitting periods, we explain how short movement breaks improve post-meal glucose, lower insulin demands and even help with blood pressure and focus.

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This podcast is intended for general educational purposes only. The content discussed does not replace professional medical, nutritional, or fitness advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Individual needs and responses vary, especially with exercise and nutrition. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making significant lifestyle changes.

Transcript

Welcome And Purpose

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's up? Welcome back to Vito with Alita. This is a podcast about evidence-based wellness for real life. I'm Alita and I'm here to talk about fitness, health, mindset, and building a strong and sustainable life. But doing so without extremes, guilt, or perfectionism. If you care about your health, but you also want a life that you can actually live, you're definitely in the right place. Now before we jump in, I just want to say thank you for being here. It genuinely means a lot that you choose to spend your time listening. And I don't take that lightly. If you've been enjoying the show, following the podcast really helps it grow and lets me know that you're enjoying what you're listening to. And it will actually help more people find these conversations, which means I can keep bringing you new episodes every single week. Alright, let's get into today's episode. I'm really grateful you're here. Today's a nice one. Today's one that I absolutely try to live by all the time. And I hope that after today's episode you try to implement some of these things as well. So before we dive in, today's word of the week is evanescent. So this means something that is fleeting, that is temporary, and that is quickly fading. So evan evanescent. And that idea actually connects very deeply to today. So a lot of the ways we think about movement. So for example, you went to the gym, you fit in your one workout, that's awesome, and that is something you should continue doing. But unfortunately, the kind of effects of that one workout are evanescent if the rest of our day is actually sedentary. As you have probably kind of felt after a workout, you feel absolutely amazing, you feel good, but those benefits actually fade if the rest of your day you're actually sitting. Or the opposite, if you sat most of your day and then you just kind of relied on the one workout. So today we're gonna talk about why sitting all day matters, what exercise snacks are, and how walking, for example, aiming for that 10k step golden rule a day can actually change your health in ways that stick and in ways that maybe you did not expect. So here's something that a lot of us get wrong. You can be super fit, you can exercise regularly by going to the gym, putting in that workout, you can lift, run, sprint, train, you can just be super in like disciplined with your workout regimen. But if you are sitting most of the day, unfortunately, you're actually still at risk for metabolic, cardiovascular, and even a lot of other health issues that you may not have considered before. So that means your one workout is not actually enough to undo the hours that you spend sitting. And this is not just another fitness myth, there's actually some science to back this up. So, why is sitting more than just you know not moving throughout the day? You may have heard this kind of saying that like sitting is the new smoking. So let's kind of dig into why. So let's think about our day here. You sit and have your coffee, you're sitting at your desk doing work, you're sitting scrolling, you're sitting while driving, you're sitting at dinner, you sit while you watch TV. And even if between all this sitting you do a solid workout, let's say 45 minutes to an hour, the other eight to ten hours of sitting actually still have significant effects on your metabolism. And multiple studies show that actually interrupting prolonged sitting with light activity can improve post-meal glucose and insulin responses. So this means it helps your body manage blood sugar more effectively when you actually break up sitting compared to when you just are sitting uninterrupted. In another randomized crossover trial, brief movement breaks throughout the day actually lowered post-meal glucose and insulin more effectively than just performing a single longer bout of exercise. What does this mean? Basically, the takeaway here is when your watch is reminding you to stand up, you should listen. So that's kind of the main takeaway that we are seeing here. Now, another study in older adults found that short light walks every 30 minutes significantly reduced post-meal insulin and blood pressure versus sitting. Now, a lot of these are looking at post-meal stuff, so after eating, but you can get the idea that even simply just getting up and not sitting is actually helping your body like regulate. So I know it could be a little bit annoying where you're thinking, well, if I'm sitting and I'm working and I'm concentrating, why do I need to get up every 30 minutes? Maybe not 30 minutes, maybe that's not doable. Okay, make it an hour. Let's be real, after an hour of just sitting, are you really still focused? No. Getting up, doing I don't know, 10 squats, even if you're like working from home, let's say, or just walking around the office can help you focus better when you do get back to your desk to do some work. So the bottom line, yeah, it's good to go to the gym. I absolutely am an advocate for that, but it's not just about that one bout of exercise. It's about moving and being active throughout the entire day. Okay, so let's kind of shift into exercise snacks, a nice little term I like, and what they are, why they work, and how you can implement them in your life. So you've probably heard of this idea of exercise snacks. Basically, little bouts of one to five minutes of activity performed throughout the day. Obviously, they could be a little bit more, like if you're walking somewhere or whatever, but the idea is to implement these little snacks, these little tidbits of exercise throughout the day. So, in a systemic review of studies on exercise snacks, so these brief bouts of activities that are that are performed multiple times throughout the day, researchers found that this approach can mitigate some of the negative effects of prolonged sitting across metabolic, cardiovascular, and even some functional outcomes. And this was true even in some adults with metabolic conditions like insulin resistance and obesity. And that's huge because it means even tiny bursts of movement throughout the day are not just busy work, they can actually impact your health, your metabolism directly. So, some examples of exercise snacks that people have studied can include like light walking breaks, and I it would be ideal if you can go outside for this, but even if you don't want to go outside, you know, put your shoes, put your coat, it's winter here, so I get it. I literally walk around my house. I go up and down the stairs a few times, I walk to my kitchen a few times, you know, not to just get my exercise snacks, if you know what I mean, but just walking around is good. Stair climbing for 30 seconds, a set of body weight squats, a set being like 10 to 15, a short brisk walk after meals, things along those lines can really help. Even something as simple as parking a little bit further when you go to the store, or parking a little bit further from the office so you can walk a little bit more, taking the stairs when you get somewhere, all these little things add up throughout the day. And the metabolic improvements are real, including improved glucose regulation and insulin sensitivity. These are all very important kind of processes that take place in our bodies, and they can be supported by something as simple as these little brisk movements that we take throughout the day. So now let's get into why walking matters and that 10k steps kind of measure that we probably hear about over and over again. There's a lot of debate about the 10k steps being this magic number. It's not a myth per se, but the reason matters. Like this goal of achieving 10k steps, I personally like it because it gives you something quantifiable, something that you can measure to say, okay, like I actually did walk enough that day. But let's kind of get into it. So research looking at daily step counts across large adult populations shows that walking more is actually associated with lower risks of early death and chronic disease. And as your step count increases, the risk keeps decreasing. And this is seen especially around that 7,500 to 10k steps a day. So walking 10k steps daily can to a certain extent help improve cardiovascular health, it can help support metabolic regulation, improves your mood, your brain health, it can help with longevity. So all of these things are good things that we kind of want in our lives, especially if you're looking to lead a little bit of a healthier lifestyle. These are these, well, this is actually a simple way to do so. Walking is not something that's very taxing on the body, and this it's not like we're training your VO2 max here, like we've talked about in previous episodes. This is something that's not very taxing, and that can be done. So to be clear, even let's say 5,000 or 7,000 steps per day has been associated with significant reductions in risks for diseases like dementia, like cardiovascular events, even cancer and depression. So the 10,000-step goal is not arbitrary, it reflects a meaningful amount of movement that has actually been linked with measurable health outcomes. So, what does this look like in real life? We talked about this, the benefits, and I hope you can appreciate these little exercise snacks and walking as something meaningful to kind of add to your daily life. So, how do you put this into practice without feeling overwhelmed? Because now I feel like some folks may take away, okay, now we're just adding to my day. Like I already don't have time to do everything, and now I gotta walk or I gotta do these things. Let's see how we can do it practically. So, first of all, first step, you want to break your sitting every 30, 60 minutes. I do maybe 60 minutes, like sometimes 30 minutes is not enough to finish the task that I want. So, even 60 minutes is fine. Set a timer every hour, stand up, walk, or just do a quick set of reps for one to three minutes. It may seem like a lot, but trust me, after the hour mark, watch yourself. Like, just look at observe yourself, your concentration starts to go down, you're not as efficient anymore. Get up, get the blood moving, walk down the hall and back, and then sit back down. Trust me, you're not gonna waste that much time in the long run. And this can actually help mitigate prolonged sitting effects. Some that we had kind of discussed earlier in the episode. Alright, two, add simple exercise snacks throughout the day. So you don't need to add a second 45-minute workout, that's not the point here. Just small bursts. 10 bodyweight squats, one to two-minute brisk walk, march in place while you're on a call. These tiny bursts can add up. And I hope you can appreciate here the idea of living an overall active lifestyle. Like if you are in a job that you are already walking around a lot, you're not kind of glued to a desk, you're already maybe gaining the benefits that we're discussing today without even realizing. This applies more for those days where you are probably sitting most of the day, those days, or people who do have desk jobs who are glued to the chair. I really urge you to get up, to get your legs moving. You will feel better. Think of when you go on a very long drive and you finally get to the rest stop, how good it feels to stand. Just apply that to your life every day and add movements where you can. And lastly, if you don't currently, I really urge you to build towards that 10k a day step goal. So this is not something you have to obsess over, but think of like progress. So even going from a thousand steps a day to two is progress. And if you can even get to 7,000 steps, there are some actually benefits associated with that 7,000 step count. Walking after meals, taking the stairs, parking further away. These things actually add up in real life. So make that conscious effort to do so. It'll really help in the long run. And I think I think it's one of the best things that I have added to my routine in general. So remember our word of the week? Evanescent. A single workout feels amazing, and it's something you should still do. Don't just skip that single workout now. But the benefits can fade quickly if your day, the rest of your day is otherwise sedentary. So movement spread throughout your day, steps, exercise snacks, walking breaks, going up and down the stairs. This builds resilience. This is what's going to cause that lasting change. It's not fleeting, it's going to be habitual, something that you're going to build gradually in your life. And that's where the real health lives. And that's where you truly start leading and living that healthier active lifestyle that you may be seeking. So I want to kind of end off by challenging you this week. Don't just think about your one workout. Yeah, like in the sense, during that one workout, push yourself, give it your all, but think about your entire day. Where can you add two to three movement breaks? How can you kind of chip away at your step count in a way that works for you and for your kind of lifestyle currently? Start there. Doesn't have to be perfect, just has to be consistent, it has to be something that fits your life. And don't underestimate things like chores, things like walking around while taking a call. Things along those lines really do add up in the grand scheme of things when you think about your entire day or even your entire week. I hope this episode resonated with you, and I'll see you on the next one. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I really appreciate you being here. If something in the episode clicked for you, send it to a friend. Or you can reach out to me directly using the link in the description. I genuinely love hearing from you. And if you want more evidence-based wellness, you can connect with me via my Instagram. Again, that link will be in the description below. Take care of yourself this week, and I'll talk to you soon. See you on the next one. Bye bye.