How to Get Up and Move

“Sitting is the new smoking,” a quote attributed Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic, is now a popular catchphrase. In his 2014 interview with the L.A. Times, he went on to say: "Sitting is more dangerous than smoking, kills more people than HIV and is more treacherous than parachuting. We are sitting ourselves to death" (Macvean, 2014). Although determining which is worse has been debated, the comparison to smoking is apt because like smoking, people first choose to sit excessively, and then it becomes a life-long habit. Also like smoking, no matter how much exercise you do before or after long stints of sitting, it won’t reverse all the damage done by hours of sitting every day.

warning One might also say that sedentary behavior, like smoking, can be addictive since the more you sit, the harder it is to quit.

The GUM App provides for Three Different Levels of Intensity. Each person must select the one that will work best for themselves. I recommend selecting Level 1 first and working up from there as you see fit.

• Easy
• Moderate
• Vigorous

Next you can follow along with some Exercises that have been carefully considered to improve balance, circulation, strength and mobility.

• Bouncing
• Shaking
• Counter Swings

Bouncing is a great exercise that helps build bone mass and bone strength by providing a gentle compression and weight bearing movement for the bones as well as warm up muscles and joints.

The Shaking exercise is excellent to help you learn to relax your whole body while still in the standing position by shaking out and wiggling and jiggling all the muscles of the body.

The Counter Swing exercise is a gentle twisting exercises that warms up the spine and helps to circulate cerebral spinal fluid and blood as well as get the core trunk muscles loosened up