Most of you need to move more throughout each day. There are countless ways to get more movement into your day that don’t require you to set aside hours to exercise.

Compelling research shows that the more time you spend sitting, the shorter and less healthy your life will tend to be. Inactivity is listed as the fourth biggest killer of adults worldwide, responsible for 9 percent of premature deaths. Other research published also found that sitting for more than three hours a day causes 3.8 percent of all-cause deaths in the 54 countries surveyed.

Avoid sitting for more than 50 minutes out of each hour and a maximum of three hours a day. Sound impossible? It’s not. But it takes perseverance. A stand-up desk is an excellent workaround for many office workers. Start by standing for 10 minutes every hour or so, and slowly increase the time you spend standing while working. Simply taking a five-minute walk for every hour spent sitting was found to eliminate the heart disease risks associated with chronic sitting.

Take movement breaks. Set a timer to go off every 15 minutes to remind you to move regularly. At least stand up and reach for the sky, but 10 jumping jacks would be even better!

Sitting Accelerates the Aging Process:

Indeed, in one recent study, women who sat the longest on a daily basis were found to be, on average, eight years older, biologically speaking, than those who were less sedentary. Other research has shown that for every hour you sit, your life expectancy decreases by two hours (smoking a cigarette cuts your life expectancy by 11 minutes).

Sitting also takes a toll on your brain. Muscle activity acts as a stimulus to keep your brain alert. When you sit and stop using your muscles, your brain may follow suit. Productivity studies seem to confirm this link. Cutting edge neuroscience research definitively shows that brain development and function throughout life is primarily dependent on movement. A study published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sports also revealed that in first grade boys, lower levels of physical activity and longer sitting time were linked to poorer reading skills.