Fifty years ago, most people"s daily levels of activity
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walking three to five miles a day; today, the average person fails to cover that
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in a week.
It"s no wonder the incidence of obesity
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—with serious implications for health.
We use cars, buses or trains to
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; our children are driven to school; escalators and lifts have replaced conventional stairs
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, offices and apartment blocks.
Washing machines, vacuum cleaners,
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and electric mowers all minimise the effort
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to maintain a clean and tidy home.
Television has us tethered
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.
Almost one third of adults spend
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sitting down every day, adding up to a staggering average of
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and four months over a lifetime.
Hardly surprising, then, that researchers
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this sedentary lifestyle for our weight gain.
Our waistlines
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one major reason: increasing inactivity.
So what is the
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The secret is integrated exercise. It might mean standing to
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and pacing the room,
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on the floor as you work. It means never taking the car when you could walk;
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standing on short train and bus journeys, or walking at
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you feel you might break into a run if you were to go
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.
A Dutch study
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that people who spend more time doing moderate, integrated-style exercise
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those who performed shorter, sharper workouts.