Think for a moment about your typical day. You awake in the morning and sit at the kitchen table for breakfast. Perhaps after that you walk a few meters to your car and drive to work - where you sit. Lunchtime is great because you can take a break from the stress of work and you can get away from...
What about our free time? Fortunately the amount that people participate in physical activity in their free time has increased, at least according to questionnaires. This has had at least a small positive effect on our bodies that typically suffer from sitting all day. Unfortunately, this is not the whole truth. The more energy that we save from technology and automation,...
In September I moved from Washington State in the USA where I lived for 26 years, to Jyväskylä in order to study. In America I drive a lot, as many do. I drove approximately 250 km a week - the drive to school was 25km, the gym 4km and the grocery store 2km. My hobbies included running and mountain biking,...
While the decrease in daily energy expenditure in our working environments can explain, in part, the obesity epidemic, the other parts of our daily life are not without blame. At work we sit and move primarily just our fingers, so maybe it is a good idea to increase our daily energy expenditure via our daily commute. Unfortunately, during the last 35...
In the 1960s almost half of jobs required moderate physical activity. Nowadays, only 20% of jobs require at least moderate physical activity. It is no surprise that four out of five Finns does their work sitting in front of a screen. These days, making the grade at work is about being smart and less about having endurance, strength and skills. Here...
Work has traditionally been a significant part of our lives and our identity. Professions have been passed on from fathers to sons for generations while both physical labor and handcraft have been valued. At the same time, physical labor has played a significant role in our daily energy expenditure. Think about how men used to work long hours in the...
Expending energy includes a lot more than just recreational exercise. We can do shoulder shrugs for other reasons than to simply indicate our lack of knowledge. In other words, we can exercise every day. Researchers in the USA asked approximately 10000 people what they do during a 24 hour period. Subjects reported all of their activity from driving in the car to...
