Unless you happen to be Gwyneth Paltrow, your lifestyle could probably do with a little spring clean.

We’re not suggesting a punishing juicing cleanse or a mega-invasive colonic. But, we could all be a bit more active, eat a little better and get a bit more sleep.

You could start by making health experts very happy and throw your couch or sofa out.

But it’s nothing to do with hygiene, or how clean your couch is.

Instead, it’s all to do with the fact that "sitting is the new smoking".

This phrase was coined by Dr James Levine, who told NBC News : "It is almost like sort of owning a really cool sports car and letting it idle all day long. The engine gets gunked up. That’s what happens to our bodies."

Someone else who wants you to stop using your couch is biomechanist and author of Move Your DNA , Katy Bowman.

"Chairs restrict your movement, and we’ve been conditioned to think that they’re the only way to rest our bodies," she says.

"But rather, you can take a seat while still moving the parts of you that hardly ever get moved."

So what do I do instead?

Rather than plonk yourself on a couch, Katy advises a more drastic alternative and sit on the floor in various positions which naturally incorporate exercises like squats, lunges and hip stretches and utilise your muscles.

It might sound like the last thing you want to do at the end of a busy day, but Katy insists these exercises "are essentially just sitting on the floor in various shapes.

"Sit on a couple of pillows or blankets to experience the work it takes to support your own body [to] get up and down."

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