I talk a lot about staying fit at the office and finding ways to get out of the chair every so often to give your body a break. Our tendency to sit has always been a concern among health and fitness professionals, not only because it leads to problems like back pain, headaches and chair-butt (a scientific term referring to tendency of your butt to spread when you don't exercise it enough), but because sitting can actually shut down the body's fat-burning enzymes.
Maybe you've found the news about this motivating and have started doing things like taking more breaks, standing up to work or shoving your computer out the window. If you haven't gone there yet, another recent study may just do the trick. In an editorial published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers talked about the detrimental affects of sitting, including an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other conditions.
What stands out about this editorial is the following statement: "Even if people meet the current recommendation of 30 minutes of physical activity on most days each week, there may be significant adverse metabolic and health effects from prolonged sitting--the activity that dominates most people's remaining "non-exercise" waking hours."
I think this is important because, if you're an exerciser like me, you may think your exercise program protects you from the dangers of sitting too much. This article points out that exercise may not be enough to offset the sitting, which leads us to the daunting question: What do we do when much of our work (and lives) requires so much sitting?
Most of us can't just attach our computers to a treadmill or ride a bike instead of drive a car, so what do we do? One place to start is with the small things. Changing your life in a day is much too difficult, but are there some some small ways you could create new, active habits? Establish a morning and/or afternoon walking break. Put a sign on your desk that reads, "STAND UP" and do it every time you look at it. Stand up every 30 minutes and do 10 squats, 10 arm swings and 10 wrist circles. Every time you finish a task (a conference call, email, a report), walk around the office for a few minutes. Whatever you decide, it's a matter of creating new behaviors that can become just as natural as sitting feels to you right now.
