There are 168 hrs in a week.  If you are an average American, you spend 40 of those hours at work sitting.  Oh, and there’s a good chance you qualify as overweight.  Is there a correlation?  Most definitely.  Not only is the majority of your work day spent sitting (8 .7 hours).  But, what about the commute (24.3 mins.), snacks/meals (1.1 hours), relaxing activities like reading/watching TV (3 hours).  Ahh, now it’s finally time for bed (7.6 hrs of lying on your back).  Think about it: you hardly moved around at all today!  The aforementioned activities total 20.64 hrs, only 3 hours left!  Oh, wait!  You did go to the gym.  That’s right, phew – now you’re safe, right!  Let’s think about what you did:  “Some machines,”  “Some bench,” and/or “Some cardio”?  Great; you even managed to sit at the gym.  But, no accolades there, it’s sadly pretty easy to sit about at the gym.  That’s right — next time your at your local gym take note of how many machines, exercises, and apparatuses actually require you to sit or lie down.  Pretty crazy, right?  That counts as your only activity of the day!  And according to The Bureau of Labor Statistics the average amount of time spent exercising for Americans is 30-59 minutes and you spent it sitting and lying down!  What a waste!

But it’s not your fault, you didn’t know, you assumed you were getting a good workout.

It is possible that you got a decent amount of exercise, but unfortunately you could’ve done a lot more.  You probably wouldn’t have had to stay any longer either.  Unfortunately, Bodybuilding has governed the fitness world for many years and as a result your gym is full of equipment that has you sitting, doing relatively small movements designed to isolate muscles.  On the contrary however, you need big movement!  Let me ask you a question: do you have kids at home?  You would have done better by chasing them around the yard, picking them up and carrying them around.  This probably would have been a better choice of activity for your body, both physically and emotionally.  But, I’m glad you’re going to the gym.  If you weren’t I might not have a job!  It’s just we have to figure out a better system, a way to get you off your ass!

Movement is the essence of life, and in part 2 we will discuss how to get off your ass and get more done in the gym by replacing your favorite machine exercises with standing movement based exercises.