Why Being Lazy Could be Bad for Your Health

Everyone has their lazy days, but there is a difference between the occasional day of from exercise and never bothering to do any kind of physical activity. It seems that there are far too many other ways for people to spend their time, other than doing exercise, and most are choosing to participate in more sedentary activities. As far as many people are concerned, why bother going for a run when you can play video games that require a lot less physical exertion? You can keep yourself entertained for hours without even leaving the house, so that exercise never even crosses your mind.

However, if you lead an inactive lifestyle, the chances are it will catch up with you eventually. If you spend most of your free time either watching television or playing computer games and have a physically undemanding job you won't be burning that many calories. At the same time, with an abundance of cheap, tasty calorific food at your disposal, you may find it difficult to curb your calorie intake. If you consume more calories than you burn, this will result in weight gain, which can be bad for your physical health and also have a detrimental impact on your self-esteem.

You may feel like sleeping-in during the weekdays, rather than getting up early to go for a jog, and hate having to walk anywhere, so that you use your car for even the shortest distances, but this won't be doing your health any favours. Even if you're lucky enough not to pile on the pounds from leading a sedentary lifestyle, you still need to make exercise a regular feature of your life. It is vital that you do at least half an hour of moderate-intensity exercise five days a week, so that you can keep your body in good condition.

This is not only a matter of looking good, though, as choosing not to do any exercise could actually be bad for you, increasing your risk of developing serious health problems as you get older. You could find yourself with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, osteoporosis and diabetes, whilst you are at greater risk of having a stroke or heart attack and of developing cancer. Exercise can also help you to control your stress levels and deal with depression, so that avoiding exercise could exacerbate these conditions, especially if you turn to less healthy options.

Thus, whilst you may revel in being lazy, making a joke of it to your friends, you may not be so happy when, later down the line, you find yourself with serious health conditions that could have been prevented. It is never too late to cast-off your laziness, though, so that you can learn to appreciate the benefits of exercise and end up actually wanting to keep active, improving your health along the way.

Are Children Lazier than they Used to be?

It certainly seems that today's children are lazier than they used to be, although it's not all their fault since many parents do not encourage their children to get active. Plus, there are so many more things for children to do these days, as they have hundreds of television channels to choose from; DVDs to watch; and a wide variety of realistic video games to play, and none of these activities require children to expend much energy. It is therefore unsurprising that childhood obesity rates have been on the rise.

Is the fact that children are lazier that they used to be such a bad thing? Well, as already mentioned, more children are being classified as obese, and this is bad news, because carrying too much weight leads to health problems. Children are getting heavier and often carry their weight problem with them into adolescence and adulthood. Unforuntately, once you've got into bad habits, it can be very hard to develop healthier ones, and if you continue to gain weight, you put your body under more and more strain.

Clearly, then, children ought to be doing more exercise. It is recommended that children should get at least an hour of physical activity a day, but many do not, and this is simply storing up problems for the future. The trouble is that it is far easier for parents to let their children play computer games than to accompany them to the park and play with them. Thus, it is not really children's fault if their parents themselves are lazy and lead a sedentary lifestyle.