Get Moving: Is it Time You Got Off the Sofa?

When it comes to exercise, sometimes we need a little bit of motivation. If you’ve been looking for something that will inspire you to get off the couch and go for a run, then this is it.

The Irish Sun reports that Ireland’s ‘couch potato’ lifestyle is just as dangerous for people as smoking. Yes, really.

A new study has found that our failure to exercise for half an hour five days a week has caused health issues like obesity, heart disease and diabetes to completely skyrocket. Worrying, huh?

The research, which was published in the noted health journal The Lancet discovered that two thirds of us are not active enough.

Now, we’re just like you. When we get home from the office in the evenings, the last thing we feel like doing is slogging it out at the gym for an hour or attending an intense hot yoga class, however, if all we need is 30 minutes of exercise five times a week to keep us healthy, surely it’s worth trying to make the effort?

The researchers noted that in recent years, the problem of people not being active enough has risen and they’re blaming this on the birth of the ‘internet generation.’ According to the researchers thanks to television and computers, we now spend way more time than we should sitting on our backsides. And it is severely impacting our health.

The study revealed that 6 per cent of heart disease cases are linked to physical inactivity and a lack of exercise is responsible for at least 7 per cent of type 2 diabetes cases. It’s also to blame for 10 per cent of breast and bowel cancer cases.

“The overwhelming majority of us are able to be physically active at very modest levels – 15 to 30 minutes a day of brisk walking – which brings substantial health benefits,” said Dr I-Min Lee, from Brigham Hospital in Boston.

Right, who’s up for a power-walk after work?