Why sitting drains your workout willpower

September 28, 2017 Ashley 0 Comments

If you’re a student who’s had a super active summer, you may’ve noticed something this month.

After being back in class, your time on your booty rose, while your workout willpower diminished.

All we wanna do is… keep sitting.


(And it’s all a downward spiral from there, isn’t it?)

But… why?

You’d think that after sitting all day, we – the restless sort – would be rarin’ to go. But, alas, our azzes just wanna transfer straight to the sofa. Granted, I’ve stayed on my weight maintenance game this year. But, as a weight loss author, I had to ask (and research), why is it so hard to start myself up? Especially when it was so simple all summer? See, back when I was in classes more consistently, I was younger. Less active. More lazy. (I could afford to ’cause I probably had a far better metabolism.) Now, I’m a two-a-day type who’s having trouble sitting still – but once I do, I don’t wanna re-ignite the fire to go and perspire like I do on my free days. And, according to many a classmate, I’m far from alone.

So, what gives?

Why do we wanna keep booty smooshing when we’ve already been doing it most’ve the day?

Well, it all boils down to what happens when you sit around for too long. Namely, there are two things that vacuum enthusiasm for exercise away. The first? Tightness. See, your hip flexors (the muscles that make your knee come upward toward your chest) tighten up because you’re shortening them the whole time you sit. This causes a whole domino reaction in your body. Tightness. Discomfort. The kind’ve pulling that makes the mere act of ambling to your car or up to your apartment (much less working out) seem like an unfathomable task. And, second? When you’re plopped stationary for more than 20 minutes, something fascinating happens. Your brain starts to do the same thing your laptop does when it’s left unattended. It goes to sleep mode. (Which is why straight lectures with no breaks are super stupid and we should all have Tony Robbins style intermissions to shake up our somatic Etch-a-sketches every quarter’ve an hour.) Thus, because your body’s not designed to have you sitting in the same posiche for so long, it thinks you must be prepping for slumber mode. So it zones off.


(Although there may indeed be other explanations for your spontaneous slumber mode…)

And that combo of stuff means good and bad news for us.

The bad news is that we can’t really change that last thing. (I mean you could stand up and start doing Vinyasa in class, if you’re not adverse to a few funny looks. Also you might miss out on scrawling out a few crucial notes you need.) Well, unless you’ve got a really great professor like mine who’s willing to take brief breaks on a timer to keep your body ‘n brain awake.

And then, the good news part’ve it’s two fold. See, now that you know it’s just your body being jedi bedtime mind tricked by its immobile position, you can hack it with some Hatha (or even just a non-yoga stretch regimen you like.) The posture of doing nada is what got you into sleepy state to begin with. And that means that assuming the sort’ve posture that promotes vitality can do the exact opposite.

So, what’s the solution exactly?

Click here to keep reading and find out…

#weight loss hacks#weight loss tips#weight loss workouts

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