It’s Friday, and you know what that means! It’s Free Fitness Friday! Check out this collection of ways you can get your movement in without spending a dime (maybe a little on gas).

Today’s mode is the basic, the foundational, the end-all-be-all of simple fitness: walking.

We learn this skill as wee babies, perfect as young children, and advance as we grow into teens and young adults. Something happens, though, as we hit adulthood. We get “big kid” jobs and suddenly we’re at a desk for 8-9 hours a day.

But it’s okay, because we’re still walking around with our friends downtown in the evenings and playing rec softball a couple nights a week.

Until we’re not.

The 9-5 desk job in adulthood very quickly (and easily!) becomes a 9-5, a fast food dinner, a couple episodes on the couch, then sleep to do it all again tomorrow. We so easily become complacent to do what’s easy, not what’s best.

Sedentary lifestyles have become the normal lifestyles not only in the US, but around the world. Unfortunately, this lack of movement is contributing to the biggest killers. Numerous studies have been done over the last 50 or so years to examine the effect of technology and subsequent changes in how we live life are affecting how long we live those lives. Inactivity leads to higher percentages of body fat, which leads to higher prevalence of chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

Sedentary lifestyles increase all causes of mortality, double the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obesity, and increase the risks of colon cancer, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, lipid disorders, depression and anxiety. According to WHO, 60 to 85% of people in the world—from both developed and developing countries—lead sedentary lifestyles, making it one of the more serious yet insufficiently addressed public health problems of our time. It is estimated that nearly two-thirds of children are also insufficiently active, with serious implications for their future health.

Physical inactivity, along increasing tobacco use and poor diet and nutrition, are increasingly becoming part of today’s lifestyle leading to the rapid rise of diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, or obesity. Chronic diseases caused by these risk factors are now the leading causes of death in every part of world except sub-Saharan Africa, where infectious diseases such as AIDS are still the leading problem. These chronic diseases are, for the most part, entirely preventable. Countries and people could save precious lives and health care resources by investing in preventing these diseases, says WHO.

On the plus side, this is one of the simplest ruts to pull yourself from! Not easy, but simple. All you have to do is get up and move, and walking is one of the most effective and simplest ways to do it. Just get up and move around.

At a desk job, set alarms or reminders to get up and walk! Use a smaller water bottle so you have to get up to refill it more often. Find reasons to move in any way.

Find friends or convince your friends to walk with you instead of (or in addition to) going out to eat. There are thousands and thousands of parks across the country, not to mention all the neighborhood sidewalks, country roads, and long driveways there are just waiting for your steps. Walking is important to your health, but so is being in nature!

Being outside in the sunlight is an important source of vitamin D. It has also been shown to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as improving mental health in general. Stay tuned for more mental health information here on the site. 🙂

Let’s all get outside this week and move. Try a new park in your community and enjoy the fresh air!

-bk