In Sitting Kills Moving Heals, Dr. Joan Vernikos tells us:
“It can be difficult to convey to people that I am not talking about getting more exercise—I’m talking about a different kind of exertion. I am referring to the multitude of small, low-intensity movements we make throughout the day as we go about the business of living—movements that are related to using gravity. These are movements that occur naturally throughout the day when you’re doing activities other than sitting. And yet these simple movements—these G-habits—are the key to health!…
Developing a varied set of habitual non-exercise movements is the most important thing you can do. Even if you do exercise regularly at the gym, pay attention to your habits when you are not exercising, for they benefit your body in a very different way. If your life and work are such that you cannot get away to exercise, you do not enjoy playing a sport, and you spend much of your day sitting in an office or a car, all is not lost. This is all the more reason why you will derive great benefits from restoring gravity habits—G-habits—back into your life. You had these habits as a growing child, so it’s simply a question of getting them back. We know from space research and bed-rest studies that exercise alone is not the complete answer. The simplest way to alternate the gravity load on the body is by changing posture. Developing a varied set of habitual non-exercise movements is the most important thing you can do.”
In No Sweat, Dr. Michele Seager tells us:
“Finding opportunities to move (my clients abbreviate this as OTMs, so I will too) throughout the day is surprisingly fun. You’ll be amazed at how soon you begin to become aware of the free spaces in the day that present themselves and the surprising places that are conducive to movement. You may think that your day is crammed so full that you can’t fit in one more thing, but believe me: It’s not true. If you’ve got one minute, you’ve got time.”
Example G-habits & OTMS: stretch, stand up, sit down, stand tall, walk up and down the stairs, walk to the other side of the building and back, do a plank, do a pushup, or do a burpee.
