“Sitting is the new smoking”, they say!  The latest research suggests that employees who spend their days sitting behind a desk are more likely to gain weight and inflict permanent damages to their bodies. If there is one thing you can change in your life that would immediately improve your health, it’s this: Sit less! The health issues that surround sitting for too long is almost as bad as smoking, if not worse.

Having a good health is one of the key factors for leading a successful, productive life. Prophet Muhammad ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “Whosoever begins the day feeling family security and good health and possessing provision for his day is as though he possessed the whole world.” [al-Tirmidhi]

In a recent collection of data from 41 research studies on sedentary time, researchers found a 91% increase in Type 2 diabetes when comparing the ‘most active’ individuals with the least. Another research conducted in 2013 found that people who are sitting for four hours or more each day are at a significantly higher risk of developing cancer, diabetes, and heart disease than those who sit less during the day.

As true believers, these research studies should concern us for following two reasons.

1. Our bodies are entrusted to us by Allah for a brief time and taking care of our body is, therefore, part of our religion.
2. As Muslims, we are required and encouraged to be proactive. Since we are aware that prolonged sitting harms our body, we should work on protecting ourselves from the harmful consequences of this habit.

Now if you resolve yourself to go to a gym after work to undo the damage of excess sitting, that doesn’t work either. Research studies concluded that a counteraction does not completely undo the bad effects of prolonged sitting. In other words, sitting down for 8 hours at work and then heading to the gym is not going to offset your excess sitting.

So, what’s the solution? I hear you ask…

Stand more and sit less. Yes, it’s as simple as that. Find ways and opportunities to stand whenever and wherever possible. Standing more helps you in multiple ways:

1. Standing burns more calories and thus ultimately helps you to lose your unwanted body fat. A person burns at least 50 calories more in an hour than when sitting. As a result, four hours of standing a day alone helps you burn a whopping 200 calories a day, which translates into 6000 calories burned a month or around a kg (2.2 lb) of body fat.
2. Standing boosts your metabolism. When we sit down for a prolonged period, our largest muscle group in our body becomes static and thus don’t process glucose and fats efficiently. This leads to problems with blood sugar, increased triglycerides, and higher LDL (bad) cholesterol. All these pave the way towards diabetes, obesity, and heart-related issues.
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3. Standing improves your cognitive functions. A recent study conducted by the Texas A&M Health Science Centre School of Public Health indicates that students who worked while standing most of the time were able to manage their time effectively, memorize facts easily, understand what they read better, solve multi-step problems, and organize their thoughts in writing better than those who worked sitting.
4. Standing improves your mood and vitality. In a seven-week study, researchers in Minneapolis, USA wanted to test whether using a standing desk improves employees’ health. They found out that standing employees reported being more energetic, happier, and having a better mood and that upper back and neck pain was reduced by 54%. These results reverted back to the baseline once the employees returned to sitting.

So standing or being active throughout the day is great for your waistline and general health. As Muslims, we know that health should be our utmost priority after imaan. Our beloved Prophet Muhammed ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam said,

“Ask Allah for forgiveness and health, for after being granted certainty, one is given nothing better than health.” (Related in Tirmidhi)

And he ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam didn’t stop there; he even encouraged us by praising health promoting physical activities.

In an authentic hadith, which is narrated in At-Tabarani, the Prophet ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “Any action which is void of the remembrance of Allah is either a distraction or heedlessness except for four actions: Walking from target to target, i.e. during archery practice, training a horse, playing with one’s family, and learning to swim.” What is most amazing is, almost all of what the Prophet ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam mentioned here are physical activities that promote one’s physical strength and overall health.

So stand or move as much as possible with the intention of taking care of your body, as surely you’ll be rewarded for that action, bi’idnillah!

In the next part of this article, I leave you with four simple strategies that will help you stand more. These are tested out strategies that are easy and could be implemented immediately.

1. Get a standing desk. If you are self-employed, this may be the best investment you could do for your health. If you are an employee, feel free to discuss this with your boss. Most companies are very accommodative to this new trend. Here is an incredible website that shows some DIY ideas to create your own standing desk for less than $50.
2. Decide on some trigger scenarios for you to stand up. Are you on the phone? Stand up. Reciting Quran or reading a book? Stand up! Making your morning and evening adhkar? Stand! By deciding some trigger scenarios in advance, it becomes easier for you to stand up when those scenarios occur.
3. For example, a trigger scenario could be saying: “If my phone rings (or replace this with any other trigger scenario), I will stand up”. While saying this sentence to yourself, visualise this scenario in your mind for a few seconds and insha Allah with some practice, you will automatically stand up when your phone rings.
4. Let others know that you prefer standing. Whether you are in a meeting or listening to a lecture, you always have the option to stand. You just need to let others know, that you prefer standing while listening to them. Usually, no one would object to your preference.
5. Do a 5-minute physical activity every 60 minutes. Australian researchers wanted to find out a viable solution for diminishing the damage of chronic sitting. There were three sets of groups in their research:

a.     The prolonged sitting group, who sat for almost 9 hours a day with some small bathroom and coffee breaks

b.     Prolonged sitting group (8.5 hours) with a 30-minute physical activity a day

c.      Regular activity breaks group, who walked the treadmill for 1 minute 40 seconds every 30 minutes for a total of 18 very small breaks over 9 hours.

The regular activity breaks (Group C) were more effective at lowering blood glucose and insulin than a one-time 30 minutes’ physical activity as in Group B.

In other words, you are better off taking small but frequent physical activities throughout the day rather than sitting the whole day and doing a 30-minute physical activity at the end of the day.

Putting this into practice, I usually skip rope or do a few push-ups or squats after every 60 minutes. This regime doesn’t replace my three times a week strength workouts. If this is difficult for you to implement, I would suggest taking a brisk walk around the block for 3 to 5 minutes every hour.

(I’ve first published this article in Productivemuslim.com and republishing it again on my own site due to popular demand)