Vigorous one hour walk with Rufus achieved. Because exercise is important, y'all.

You know what, quick thread. Here's how I do it. 1/

Let's start at the beginning. A sedentary lifestyle is one of the biggest killers out there. Sitting down for long periods of time is as bad as smoking for mortality. Don't believe me? Look it up. 2/

Here's a detailed study if you want all the data: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6133005/

But here's the key point:

3/

study demonstrates increasing risk of disease &mortality with increasing total sitting time & TV viewing time. It also revealed a threshold of 6–8 h/day of total sitting and 3–4 h/day of TV viewing, above which risk for several important health outcomes increased more rapidly. 4/

So maybe the smoking analogy is stretching it, but not by much. Sitting around a lot is BAD for you. As writers, we obviously sit around a lot. One other thing with regards to that... 5/

[personal trainer hat on*]

It doesn't matter if you're fit and healthy and you exercise for an hour every day. If you then sit around for 6 to 8 hours at work, the unhealthy effects of sitting are just as bad! 6/

I'm a martial arts instructor. I train hard almost every day. I'm in pretty good shape. None of that means I can then sit around for 8 hours a day penning mad horror. I mean, that IS what I do, but not without breaks. Here's the important bit. 7/

You have to break up those sitting hours. I use a timer app on my desktop, set for 30 mins. The alarm goes off after 30 minutes, I get out of the chair and move around. I might make a cuppa, do some push-ups, practice one or two kung fu forms. After 5 or 10 mins, back to work. 8/

I reset the timer and start it again. If I'm really in the zone I might skip one alarm and go for an hour straight, but NEVER more than one. I can break and get back to work because I've trained myself to do that. This is a job, so work on your job skills. 9/

You might also get a standing desk, or work with a laptop while you walk on a treadmill. Anything is good as long as you get up and move around once or twice every hour AT LEAST. 10/

Now we all know dogs are awesome, but here's another reason why. In the middle of every day I take an hour or so break, quick lunch, then walk Rufus. Long, fast-paced walks. I might take a 90 minute break. What's important is moving my body, even if I'm teaching that night. 11/

So that's my advice to you all, writers especially. But it applies to anyone with a sedentary job. Sitting around is a killer. MOVE YOSELF! 12/12

*I'm not a PT any more, but I was for over a decade.

From our walk today.