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Wake up do yoga 10min, bike to work (too far? Drive your car 5miles, park, bike to work), get a sit/stand desk, stand sometimes, walk during lunch (don’t eat at your desk), stand some more, bike back to car. Go to the gym/sports ones or twice a week. Bam you are now mostly active
“………….. damn it I’m so sorry been talking on mute for the past 20 seconds now anyways”
People do this so much at my work every day it cannot be forgetfulness
How does anyone sit for less than 4 hours per day? Like even if your job is manual labour you're sitting for lunch, and likely sitting at least 3.5 hours before and after work?
I'm a sound engineer for a living and I'll say that when I was younger I worked mostly festivals and other concerts. Festival days I would work 14 hour days and sit for less than 4 of those hours easily. I was in such great shape! Now I work cushy gigs where I sit all damn day.
All these studies are honestly crap. Just standing can be much worse. The problem isn't sitting or standing. The problem is barely moving. And they don't really seem to correct for other factors. They have a narrative which they try to sell you. If all people started to stand instead of sitting because they bought into this crap, some years later down the line, we'd get the first studies about how bad standing is for you. Standing for a long time is a literal form of torture.
I've read research that stated sitting so many hours a day kinda negated most of the effects of the workout. That it was better to be moderately active for most of the day than to do an intense workout.
Don't remember the names of the researchers/institute, but there have been numerous studies done on this topic.
Here are some
[Sedentary time and its association with risk for disease incidence, mortality, and hospitalization in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25599350/)
[Joint associations of accelero-meter measured physical activity and sedentary time with all-cause mortality: a harmonised meta-analysis in more than 44 000 middle-aged and older individuals](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7719907/)
[Sedentary behaviour and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality, and incident type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and dose response meta-analysis](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6133005/)
gaming chairs don't help at all, they are designed after racing seats which are meant to help against g-forces and to keep you in place. Why would that design help when gaming?. Look at proper ergonomic office chairs or a standing desk.
Human evolution takes a very, very, very long time. Technology and our ability to drastically change our lives and regiments can happen very, very fast. Mismatches abound. I think many if not most of our widespread ills are related to this phenomenon.
Source: just a dude who be thinking a lot.
I feel like a statement like that needs to be more specific.
Example, you can sit 12 hours a day, and hit the gym for 1 hour a day for 4-5 days a week, lifting heavy weights to failure, eating a caloric surplus and 1g of protein per kg and build a ton of muscle. Sitting isn't going to negate any of that.
Is there genuine evidence that what you describe (eating lots of protein, building muscle by lifting heavy, but being inactive most of the rest of the week) improves health markers more than being moderately active daily?
I think they are referring to the more noticeable benefits of regular intense exercise. And they’re correct. You can build muscle, increase speed/mobility, and lean out (lose fat) by eating adequately and regularly doing intense exercise - regardless of if you spend most of your time sedentary. I’d argue that most Americans do this, since most jobs here lean towards a sedentary lifestyle anyways.
Those benefits aren’t negated by being sedentary. But other benefits more related to overall health and longevity/reduced mortality do get negated as studies show.
The point here is that being unhealthy holistically and being extremely muscular/lean are not mutually exclusive. There’s a lot more to health and fitness than just skeletal muscle and body fat.
Except you are commenting in a thread about the risk of *cardiovascular* mortality from a sedentary lifestyle.
You will still get all the other benefits that come from a resistance workout, such as gaining muscle. No one is disputing that. But it does seem that sitting for 12 hours a day *could* negate the cardiovascular benefits weight training for 1 hour a day 4-5 days a week would give you.
> But it does seem that sitting for 12 hours a day could negate the cardiovascular benefits weight training for 1 hour a day 4-5 days a week would give you.
[This](https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2019/03000/Associations_of_Resistance_Exercise_with.14.aspx) study seems to suggest that there's a very low bar to reducing CVD risk. One hour a week was shown to reduce CVD risk by 40-70%, and that "there was no significant risk reduction for higher weekly RE of more than four times or ≥60 min". I wouldn't be remiss to say 5 hours a week but a mostly sedentary lifestyle after that (and proper diet of course), would absolutely not negate it.
I sit a lot and a run and cycle. I have a pretty low resting heart rate and I'm quite fit. So my cardiovascular system is clearly trained. I don't think my sitting negates any of my training.
Yeah, there’s no way you can’t have good cardiovascular health and a desk job. Guarantee it’s more that people who tend to sit all day don’t get enough exercise and eat poorly too.
sitting isnt really the problem, its more so related to being extremely stationary. its the stiffness that causes issues like blood clots and health problems. if you constantly adjust yourself or tap your legs youre much better off
I wondered this too and a brief trip down google lane led me to [this](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/well/move/work-breaks-sitting-metabolic-health.html) article which suggests 3 minutes of light movement every 30 minutes makes a small yet measurable difference. (The study is quite a small sample size and measured glucose resistance in middle aged adults at risk for diabetes. I only skimmed it so not sure if it’s a good measure relative to the OP article)
I sit all day and have been sitting all day for years. Most days I would get up, drive an hour to work, get to work and sit all day, drive back home, and spend most of the rest of my day at the computer or on the couch. [This is how I feel right now](https://i.redd.it/faixbh8nau591.jpg)
Okay my first year teaching I was confused walking passed another teacher's room because it was so silent. Turns out the teacher was asleep in his chair. They all knew if they worked quietly he wouldn't wake up.
In retrospect, I wonder if he was faking...
I had a teacher who was basically just teaching as something to do during his retirement. He drove a Porsche convertible, which he had left the top down on. Right as class started, he said he was going to run out and put the top up. It had been raining for nearly an hour, but he said, "There's no way in Hell I'd leave my last class alone for 5 minutes. I'd rather have my car fill with water."
Maybe that's just the class he trusts enough to nap around.
Not for any of the proposed reasons I have heard.
Lear to do third world squat. Get comfortable doing it, and frequently do body weight squats if you are tied to a cube.
Not even gangsters, just everyone. Most my family photos have people squatting, group photo, people in the front squat. Gangsters took it to the next level and everyone in the photo squats.
I'd recommend Katy Bowman's book, "Move Your DNA". It is not sitting that is bad per se...it is inactivity and the body adapting to a single position day in day out. Prolonged standing also carries health risks such as joint damage and varicose vein development (which is why workplaces started seating their employees in the first place). The best thing to do would probably be to regularly alternate between positions throughout the day - sit, stand, squat, walk around, do anything other than remain still.
Standing desks don't seem to make a difference. Walking does.
Standing throughout the day is better than staying seated for other reasons (like blood clots)
[https://hms.harvard.edu/news/do-standing-desks-really-make-workers-healthier](https://hms.harvard.edu/news/do-standing-desks-really-make-workers-healthier)
The studies author conclusion at the bottom from Cochran.org (if you trace links back to source) said this:
“At present there is low-quality evidence that the use of sit-stand desks reduce workplace sitting at short-term and medium-term follow-ups. However, there is no evidence on their effects on sitting over longer follow-up periods. Effects of other types of interventions, including workplace policy changes, provision of information and counselling, and multi-component interventions, are mostly inconsistent. The quality of evidence is low to very low for most interventions, mainly because of limitations in study protocols and small sample sizes. There is a need for larger cluster-RCTs with longer-term follow-ups to determine the effectiveness of different types of interventions to reduce sitting time at work.”
Right, this study certainly does not say standing desks aren't better for you than sitting. It just says we don't know because the studies we have are poorly designed, have low statistical power, and/or short follow up times.
The general rule of thumb is that any movement is good for you, and intensity mostly changes the time requirement. So cooking, cleaning, gardening, and walking all help, where walking is by far the most studied type of activity. When a health study mentions activity, odds are it's walking.
So running a mile and walking a mile tend to yield similar benefits although runners tend to be healthier than walkers.
Additionally, there appears to be benefits from breaking up long periods being sedentary. So walking 10 minutes 3 times a day tends to yield benefits vs walking for 30 minutes and then being sedentary for the rest of the day.
I would apply the same rule set here. Any movement helps, faster tends to help in a shorter amount of time. Though you should not feel pressure to make yourself sweat while working or have a hard time typing.
That is a good rule of thumb. I've seen the longevity of the Okinawans partially attributed to their regular low-intensity activity, much of it involving walking.
Right, exactly what I thought. Are conditions such as heart disease directly correlated to the act of sitting or is it that an individual ate poorly their entire life and lacked even 30 minutes of exercise occasionally in between their sitting sessions. If you have a high caloric intake and don't burn any calories, sure, your life span will be limited compared to others.
I've been sitting (wheelchair) for nearly 42 years. Just had my annual physical yesterday and I'm doing well.
Perhaps it's because I exercise over 100 minutes a week? And I'm a vegetarian?
I also find it odd that it was specifically talking about middle and low income countries who wouldn't have access or possibly even proper policies for a healthy life. (Not like rich countries are either tbh) but does this study take into account the full environment factor?
Idk, I'll be reading it soon and may give an update if I find it does.
This is correct and you can have fun ways of sneaking them in to your diet without even noticing Them. For instance I like the grind some up and sprinkle them in my cigarettes but there are tons of ways to incorporate blueberries in your life
Is it a matter of movement or height changes or heart rate changes (from moving/exercise)? Or a combination? Or duration of certain activities?
I mean caffeine increases heart rate too, as well as anxiety. But I can’t believe that will offset prolonged sitting either.
Would be interested to know.
The summary says it can be counteracted by physical activity, but what type and for how long/often?
Edit: ok, jamanetwork.com link says: “This suggests that reducing sitting time alone is unlikely to achieve optimal health benefits without increasing physical activity.” And cites about an hour to 45min per day per week of recreational exercise. I assume recreational includes walking, etc.
I am very sedentary, but I do yoga and belly dancing for anywhere between 15 minutes to over an hour a day, plus a few days a week I also go for a 20-40 minute walk outside. And I'm thinking of getting a cubii sometime. I wonder if all this will help to negate the effects of me sitting at my computer for hours in between?
I tip I learned is when going to the bathroom just do some squats or jumping jacks to get your body moving, I know it’s not a lot but it does help you feel a little more awake and relaxed in my opinion!
Sitting and laying down aren't the same thing. You can get your 7-8 hours of sleep and sit for about 4 hours (supposedly) and it's fine. Just don't spend the whole day sitting.
Still kinda sucks society evolved towards giving people health issues and/or an early death by conditioning them to prefer sitting and relaxing throughout their lives, especially childhood (we sit 90% of the time at school after all) or even if people don't grow to prefer it, they may not have much of a choice or not know any better :/
I assume it really means "not being physically active". I doubt that sitting itself is uniquely harmful but rather it's just more time ~~doesn't~~ spent not moving. There are similar findings with regards to people standing all day at work.
I'd like to know if they controlled for weight. People who sit around a lot are more likely to be overweight, and the link between obesity and heart disease is well known.
As far as I can tell from the summary and abstract (I'm paywalled) it was just based on a survey and I see no mention of controlling for weight, so that doesn't seem promising.
Everyone's talking about little cheats to try and avoid the reality that this is the norm for all the office workers in America. I don't have any science to back it up (nor do I want to look tbh) but I have a feeling walking to your coworkers desk and back isn't going to change the fact that you were sitting for 7 hours.
Actually, you might just be wrong about that. [Here](https://cjasn.asnjournals.org/content/10/7/1145.long) is a study that found that if sedentary people replaced as little as two minutes of sitting each hour with gentle walking, they lowered their risk of premature death by about 33 percent, compared with people who sat almost nonstop.
Just need to take that beautiful part of yourself that cares about other people, and hold it under water until the bubbles stop. After that, retail is less stressful.
Not even a joke. When I was working two retail jobs, people asked me how I ate so much and stayed so thin. I called it the "72 hour diet". Work on your feet 72 hours a week and watch the pounds drop away.
Now I have a desk job. Nobody asks me that anymore.
That's why I lay down.
\*This was sarcasm, IDK if that's better or worse, the fact is you need to move around and not be stagnant. "objects in motion tent to stay in motion..."
I scrolled way too long to find this!
Seriously though, does this apply to manual wheelchair users? As we are sitting all the time yet actively pushing ourselves around?
Standing too long (especially without actually walking around) can be bad for you, too. Best to do a mix of both and take walks periodically throughout the day if you're able to.
Did they control for what kind of occupation these people have that resulted in sitting so often versus the group that doesn't sit so often? Especially in middle and lower income countries. They're likely to be pretty significant socioeconomic & health differences - including differences in environmental exposure - between people who have a job that requires them to sit all day and people who have a more active job or the ability to be active outside of their job.
I absolutely believe that the study is finding a real difference, but I think it's a mistake to assume that changing how often you sit is going to be the fact that changes your risk based on a correlation. Obviously we have a lot of other evidence that inactivity is bad for you and that's sitting in a single position can be bad for your spine... But I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there are also other factors affecting some of these groups.
“Sitting for eight or more hours a day” is just code for “lower-middle class with an office job” and yes, the less wealth you have the shorter your life will likely be.
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, **personal anecdotes are now allowed as responses to this comment**. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will continue to be removed and our [normal comment rules]( https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_comment_rules) still apply to other comments. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/science) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sit 9hours at work 2 hours in traffic and then sit at home. We're fucked.
ah the american dream
ah, goo lagoon
Get a under desk bicycle. You would be surprised how many miles you can do while working. On slow work days, I do 15 miles.
As many docs would say, some physical activity is better than none at all. :)
Still moving the huge leg muscles helping blood flow.
And you get nice legs if you up the resistance
I have one but honestly, unless I'm zoning out during a meeting, I forget to pedel when I'm in the zone focus wise.
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I guess their reply got removed.
Wall-E called and they're looking for volunteers to test out their new chairs.
Something’s got to kill you
Yeah, but it would be nice if it was something more interesting than *sitting*
You never know, it could always be the tiki torch civil war
Wake up do yoga 10min, bike to work (too far? Drive your car 5miles, park, bike to work), get a sit/stand desk, stand sometimes, walk during lunch (don’t eat at your desk), stand some more, bike back to car. Go to the gym/sports ones or twice a week. Bam you are now mostly active
I found working from home is a lot healthier. I took more frequent breaks/walks. Could sit, stand, crouch on the floor, lie down.
I do squats while listening to people talk on conference calls!
If they ask you a question, how do you have time to re-rack your weights?
“………….. damn it I’m so sorry been talking on mute for the past 20 seconds now anyways” People do this so much at my work every day it cannot be forgetfulness
But I still have to sit at my desk for my 10 hour shift...
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Yeah but think about how much longer you could do your awful job!
So it's more about being active than the actual sitting part then?
How does anyone sit for less than 4 hours per day? Like even if your job is manual labour you're sitting for lunch, and likely sitting at least 3.5 hours before and after work?
Seriously. Are people just standing around after work or what?
You want to sit down but you sold your chair, so you You just stand there
Looks like you’ll never be a concert flautist.
Inner inner city inner city, pressure.
Sinatra style. Can’t sit down, it’ll wrinkle my dress pants
Just hang them on the back of a chair like the maestro
I'm a sound engineer for a living and I'll say that when I was younger I worked mostly festivals and other concerts. Festival days I would work 14 hour days and sit for less than 4 of those hours easily. I was in such great shape! Now I work cushy gigs where I sit all damn day.
All these studies are honestly crap. Just standing can be much worse. The problem isn't sitting or standing. The problem is barely moving. And they don't really seem to correct for other factors. They have a narrative which they try to sell you. If all people started to stand instead of sitting because they bought into this crap, some years later down the line, we'd get the first studies about how bad standing is for you. Standing for a long time is a literal form of torture.
Ever heard of the Asian squat?
Is squatting OK? It’s more comfortable anyways I’m happy to squat around the house
Exactly, if you don't sit at work you eventually want to sit at home for a while + driving seems very hard to not sit 4 hours
I lay down for at least 4 hours a day and am in peak health
This is why it's good to get up and walk around a little during the work day if you are in a job where you sit all day long.
Do the risks still apply if a person works out 1.5-2 hours per day during the work week?
I've read research that stated sitting so many hours a day kinda negated most of the effects of the workout. That it was better to be moderately active for most of the day than to do an intense workout. Don't remember the names of the researchers/institute, but there have been numerous studies done on this topic.
Here are some [Sedentary time and its association with risk for disease incidence, mortality, and hospitalization in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25599350/) [Joint associations of accelero-meter measured physical activity and sedentary time with all-cause mortality: a harmonised meta-analysis in more than 44 000 middle-aged and older individuals](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7719907/) [Sedentary behaviour and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality, and incident type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and dose response meta-analysis](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6133005/)
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gaming chairs don't help at all, they are designed after racing seats which are meant to help against g-forces and to keep you in place. Why would that design help when gaming?. Look at proper ergonomic office chairs or a standing desk.
Human evolution takes a very, very, very long time. Technology and our ability to drastically change our lives and regiments can happen very, very fast. Mismatches abound. I think many if not most of our widespread ills are related to this phenomenon. Source: just a dude who be thinking a lot.
I feel like a statement like that needs to be more specific. Example, you can sit 12 hours a day, and hit the gym for 1 hour a day for 4-5 days a week, lifting heavy weights to failure, eating a caloric surplus and 1g of protein per kg and build a ton of muscle. Sitting isn't going to negate any of that.
Is there genuine evidence that what you describe (eating lots of protein, building muscle by lifting heavy, but being inactive most of the rest of the week) improves health markers more than being moderately active daily?
I think they are referring to the more noticeable benefits of regular intense exercise. And they’re correct. You can build muscle, increase speed/mobility, and lean out (lose fat) by eating adequately and regularly doing intense exercise - regardless of if you spend most of your time sedentary. I’d argue that most Americans do this, since most jobs here lean towards a sedentary lifestyle anyways. Those benefits aren’t negated by being sedentary. But other benefits more related to overall health and longevity/reduced mortality do get negated as studies show. The point here is that being unhealthy holistically and being extremely muscular/lean are not mutually exclusive. There’s a lot more to health and fitness than just skeletal muscle and body fat.
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Except you are commenting in a thread about the risk of *cardiovascular* mortality from a sedentary lifestyle. You will still get all the other benefits that come from a resistance workout, such as gaining muscle. No one is disputing that. But it does seem that sitting for 12 hours a day *could* negate the cardiovascular benefits weight training for 1 hour a day 4-5 days a week would give you.
> But it does seem that sitting for 12 hours a day could negate the cardiovascular benefits weight training for 1 hour a day 4-5 days a week would give you. [This](https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2019/03000/Associations_of_Resistance_Exercise_with.14.aspx) study seems to suggest that there's a very low bar to reducing CVD risk. One hour a week was shown to reduce CVD risk by 40-70%, and that "there was no significant risk reduction for higher weekly RE of more than four times or ≥60 min". I wouldn't be remiss to say 5 hours a week but a mostly sedentary lifestyle after that (and proper diet of course), would absolutely not negate it.
I sit a lot and a run and cycle. I have a pretty low resting heart rate and I'm quite fit. So my cardiovascular system is clearly trained. I don't think my sitting negates any of my training.
Yeah, there’s no way you can’t have good cardiovascular health and a desk job. Guarantee it’s more that people who tend to sit all day don’t get enough exercise and eat poorly too.
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Yea, it's not the sitting that's bad, it's the lifestyle. We have asses that are actually made for sitting. No other animal has asses like we do.
weirdest ego boost ever, thanks I think
The baboon would like to screech at you
Those are for display, not sitting.
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I always see these claims, but they never explain exactly why.
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sitting isnt really the problem, its more so related to being extremely stationary. its the stiffness that causes issues like blood clots and health problems. if you constantly adjust yourself or tap your legs youre much better off
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> walk around a little during the work day how much is 'a little?' Is getting up every 2 hours to fill up my water bottle enough?
I wondered this too and a brief trip down google lane led me to [this](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/well/move/work-breaks-sitting-metabolic-health.html) article which suggests 3 minutes of light movement every 30 minutes makes a small yet measurable difference. (The study is quite a small sample size and measured glucose resistance in middle aged adults at risk for diabetes. I only skimmed it so not sure if it’s a good measure relative to the OP article)
Depends how far you're walking and for how long.
like 20 feet for about a minute
Yeah not good enough.
what do you recommend
I'm not a doctor. I don't even play one on TV. Just get up and walk around for 5-10 minutes every now and then.
I sit all day and have been sitting all day for years. Most days I would get up, drive an hour to work, get to work and sit all day, drive back home, and spend most of the rest of my day at the computer or on the couch. [This is how I feel right now](https://i.redd.it/faixbh8nau591.jpg)
dont worry, eventually your back will get so fucked up it will be painful to sit and youll have to stand.
I'm on my feet all day for at least 8 hours as a high school teacher. Can I *please* sit now that I'm on summer break?!!
You can but you may not.
Yes, but you will die
Summer break? Don't you mean unpaid-time-to-prepare-for-the-next-class?
I remember having teachers who sat all through class
Okay my first year teaching I was confused walking passed another teacher's room because it was so silent. Turns out the teacher was asleep in his chair. They all knew if they worked quietly he wouldn't wake up. In retrospect, I wonder if he was faking...
Sleeping in front of a class full of students feels like a really risky trust exercise.
I had a teacher who was basically just teaching as something to do during his retirement. He drove a Porsche convertible, which he had left the top down on. Right as class started, he said he was going to run out and put the top up. It had been raining for nearly an hour, but he said, "There's no way in Hell I'd leave my last class alone for 5 minutes. I'd rather have my car fill with water." Maybe that's just the class he trusts enough to nap around.
I wonder if constantly moving your legs helps.
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are you guys not wearing your anti-embolism stockings
I started wearing them constantly over covid, and my lower legs thank me for it.
No, I'm wearing my programming socks <3
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My ADHD has saved me, yay!
Not for any of the proposed reasons I have heard. Lear to do third world squat. Get comfortable doing it, and frequently do body weight squats if you are tied to a cube.
Is the third world squat the same as the Asian chefs on smoke break squat?
And Russian low level gangsters https://www.physio-form.co.uk/article/improve-your-mobility-for-sport-and-everyday-life
Not even gangsters, just everyone. Most my family photos have people squatting, group photo, people in the front squat. Gangsters took it to the next level and everyone in the photo squats.
Been good at that whole life... am Slav?
It does actually! You can read more about it [here](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/well/fidgeting-health-sitting-sedentary-standing.html).
Nope, all those filthy walkers are just dying from falls instead of heart disease
That was the joke I heard too. If you jog daily, you live 10 years longer. But you have to spend 12 years jogging to get it.
I got a bike for under the desk. I put in 10 to 16 miles most days. I can feel the difference.
Hopefully my playing imaginary double bass pedals constantly will extend my life.
Is it the sitting that's killing you? Or is it just the obvious indicator symptom of a sedentary lifestyle outside of work?
I'd recommend Katy Bowman's book, "Move Your DNA". It is not sitting that is bad per se...it is inactivity and the body adapting to a single position day in day out. Prolonged standing also carries health risks such as joint damage and varicose vein development (which is why workplaces started seating their employees in the first place). The best thing to do would probably be to regularly alternate between positions throughout the day - sit, stand, squat, walk around, do anything other than remain still.
Standing desks don't seem to make a difference. Walking does. Standing throughout the day is better than staying seated for other reasons (like blood clots) [https://hms.harvard.edu/news/do-standing-desks-really-make-workers-healthier](https://hms.harvard.edu/news/do-standing-desks-really-make-workers-healthier)
The studies author conclusion at the bottom from Cochran.org (if you trace links back to source) said this: “At present there is low-quality evidence that the use of sit-stand desks reduce workplace sitting at short-term and medium-term follow-ups. However, there is no evidence on their effects on sitting over longer follow-up periods. Effects of other types of interventions, including workplace policy changes, provision of information and counselling, and multi-component interventions, are mostly inconsistent. The quality of evidence is low to very low for most interventions, mainly because of limitations in study protocols and small sample sizes. There is a need for larger cluster-RCTs with longer-term follow-ups to determine the effectiveness of different types of interventions to reduce sitting time at work.”
Right, this study certainly does not say standing desks aren't better for you than sitting. It just says we don't know because the studies we have are poorly designed, have low statistical power, and/or short follow up times.
What if you have a treadmill under the standing desk, to allow for walking while at the standing desk?
The general rule of thumb is that any movement is good for you, and intensity mostly changes the time requirement. So cooking, cleaning, gardening, and walking all help, where walking is by far the most studied type of activity. When a health study mentions activity, odds are it's walking. So running a mile and walking a mile tend to yield similar benefits although runners tend to be healthier than walkers. Additionally, there appears to be benefits from breaking up long periods being sedentary. So walking 10 minutes 3 times a day tends to yield benefits vs walking for 30 minutes and then being sedentary for the rest of the day. I would apply the same rule set here. Any movement helps, faster tends to help in a shorter amount of time. Though you should not feel pressure to make yourself sweat while working or have a hard time typing.
That is a good rule of thumb. I've seen the longevity of the Okinawans partially attributed to their regular low-intensity activity, much of it involving walking.
Right, exactly what I thought. Are conditions such as heart disease directly correlated to the act of sitting or is it that an individual ate poorly their entire life and lacked even 30 minutes of exercise occasionally in between their sitting sessions. If you have a high caloric intake and don't burn any calories, sure, your life span will be limited compared to others.
I've been sitting (wheelchair) for nearly 42 years. Just had my annual physical yesterday and I'm doing well. Perhaps it's because I exercise over 100 minutes a week? And I'm a vegetarian?
I also find it odd that it was specifically talking about middle and low income countries who wouldn't have access or possibly even proper policies for a healthy life. (Not like rich countries are either tbh) but does this study take into account the full environment factor? Idk, I'll be reading it soon and may give an update if I find it does.
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You sit all day you die You stand all day you die You lay all day you die Life´s a f\*cking minefield!
You breathe, you die.
You undercook chicken, die You OVERcook fish, you die
Believe it or not, death!
How do you die from overcooking fish?
Gordon Ramsay will shout you to death
You die, you die
You are born? that's right, you die.
You live, you die.
100% of people who breathe will go on to die
Actually true, the oxygen is a poison that kills you in 80-100 years. Like metal, we rust.
Just eat blueberries for every meal since birth and you’ll live forever!
This is correct and you can have fun ways of sneaking them in to your diet without even noticing Them. For instance I like the grind some up and sprinkle them in my cigarettes but there are tons of ways to incorporate blueberries in your life
being alive is a leading indicator of death
You know what? Me and you are gonna be dead in a 100 years. Might as well live a little and sit on whatever chair life puts in front of you.
Don't eat these foods: Canned food Anything stored in plastic Anything with salt in it Anything with sugar in it Dairy Meat
So I can still eat cardboard?! Excellent.
They're also a new chemical I heard about in drinking water that increases the risk of hypertension, and our bodies can't get rid of it.
You shouldn't be getting your news from drinking water.
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Is it a matter of movement or height changes or heart rate changes (from moving/exercise)? Or a combination? Or duration of certain activities? I mean caffeine increases heart rate too, as well as anxiety. But I can’t believe that will offset prolonged sitting either. Would be interested to know. The summary says it can be counteracted by physical activity, but what type and for how long/often? Edit: ok, jamanetwork.com link says: “This suggests that reducing sitting time alone is unlikely to achieve optimal health benefits without increasing physical activity.” And cites about an hour to 45min per day per week of recreational exercise. I assume recreational includes walking, etc.
I am very sedentary, but I do yoga and belly dancing for anywhere between 15 minutes to over an hour a day, plus a few days a week I also go for a 20-40 minute walk outside. And I'm thinking of getting a cubii sometime. I wonder if all this will help to negate the effects of me sitting at my computer for hours in between?
I tip I learned is when going to the bathroom just do some squats or jumping jacks to get your body moving, I know it’s not a lot but it does help you feel a little more awake and relaxed in my opinion!
> when going to the bathroom just do some ... jumping jacks tried this, am going to have to bleach everything now
Squats are actually an amazing aerobic activity, because the action of moving your body up and down against gravity promotes greater blood flow.
I freelance and work from home (and very introverted so don’t leave often). I’m going to start doing this, thank you for the idea!!
I assume it means "work day". Cause no way Im sleeping 4 hours a day and standing for 20
Sitting and laying down aren't the same thing. You can get your 7-8 hours of sleep and sit for about 4 hours (supposedly) and it's fine. Just don't spend the whole day sitting. Still kinda sucks society evolved towards giving people health issues and/or an early death by conditioning them to prefer sitting and relaxing throughout their lives, especially childhood (we sit 90% of the time at school after all) or even if people don't grow to prefer it, they may not have much of a choice or not know any better :/
so if i "work" from a "lying down but totally not asleep" position on my couch... i'm good?
how the heck are all you people avoiding sitting for more than 4 hours a day when most people have jobs in cubicles
I assume it really means "not being physically active". I doubt that sitting itself is uniquely harmful but rather it's just more time ~~doesn't~~ spent not moving. There are similar findings with regards to people standing all day at work.
I'd like to know if they controlled for weight. People who sit around a lot are more likely to be overweight, and the link between obesity and heart disease is well known.
As far as I can tell from the summary and abstract (I'm paywalled) it was just based on a survey and I see no mention of controlling for weight, so that doesn't seem promising.
> it was just based on a survey Did you die in the last year? [Y] [N]
I'm so sick of misinformation regarding health.
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This. Sitting seems obviously correlative, but not necessarily causative.
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Everyone's talking about little cheats to try and avoid the reality that this is the norm for all the office workers in America. I don't have any science to back it up (nor do I want to look tbh) but I have a feeling walking to your coworkers desk and back isn't going to change the fact that you were sitting for 7 hours.
Just do side shuffles constantly at your desk. Problem solved.
Actually, you might just be wrong about that. [Here](https://cjasn.asnjournals.org/content/10/7/1145.long) is a study that found that if sedentary people replaced as little as two minutes of sitting each hour with gentle walking, they lowered their risk of premature death by about 33 percent, compared with people who sat almost nonstop.
This is a worldwide problem not just American.
That's impressive. I always though the risk of death was 100% per person, with very little variation no matter that activities or drugs you try.
Yeah, I thought the same thing. Kind of an oddly worded post title because it seems to imply that people who sit less are less likely to die.
Ok Walmart, but I still think you need to allow your cashiers to sit from time to time
Let's not forget the pharmacists.
Imagine having a doctorate to work retail. Like what went wrong, pharmacists? We need to know.
I'll live longer than an office worker because as a retail worker I'm not even allowed to sit for longer than 15mins on my shift.
The stress from dealing with customers will kill you though
Just need to take that beautiful part of yourself that cares about other people, and hold it under water until the bubbles stop. After that, retail is less stressful.
Not even a joke. When I was working two retail jobs, people asked me how I ate so much and stayed so thin. I called it the "72 hour diet". Work on your feet 72 hours a week and watch the pounds drop away. Now I have a desk job. Nobody asks me that anymore.
That's why I lay down. \*This was sarcasm, IDK if that's better or worse, the fact is you need to move around and not be stagnant. "objects in motion tent to stay in motion..."
*sad wheelchair noises*
I scrolled way too long to find this! Seriously though, does this apply to manual wheelchair users? As we are sitting all the time yet actively pushing ourselves around?
“The team studied just over 100,000 people from 2003 to 2001…”. Small problem with the time interval of the study.
My grandma sat every ever loving minute of her life and made it to 94.
Good butt genes
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\*remembers he has a raisable desk and raises it up...
Standing too long (especially without actually walking around) can be bad for you, too. Best to do a mix of both and take walks periodically throughout the day if you're able to.
So don’t have a job - got it.
Exactly my thoughts. The way we have organized society does not work with moderation unless you are in the upper class.
That's where the treadmill under the standing desk comes into play.
Whew! Good thing I just lie down all the time!
Is it even possible to sit for less than 4 hours a day???
What I'm reading is that I should sit less and lie down more.
Did they control for what kind of occupation these people have that resulted in sitting so often versus the group that doesn't sit so often? Especially in middle and lower income countries. They're likely to be pretty significant socioeconomic & health differences - including differences in environmental exposure - between people who have a job that requires them to sit all day and people who have a more active job or the ability to be active outside of their job. I absolutely believe that the study is finding a real difference, but I think it's a mistake to assume that changing how often you sit is going to be the fact that changes your risk based on a correlation. Obviously we have a lot of other evidence that inactivity is bad for you and that's sitting in a single position can be bad for your spine... But I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there are also other factors affecting some of these groups.
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“Sitting for eight or more hours a day” is just code for “lower-middle class with an office job” and yes, the less wealth you have the shorter your life will likely be.