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Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

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Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#11

Post by rubicon33 »

"We found that women who sat longer did not have shorter telomere length if they exercised for at least 30 minutes a day"

In other words, you can't exercise away an unhealthy life style.

That's very similar to diet. In fact, the big 3 (diet, exercise, and sleep) taken together are far greater than the sum of their parts.

As a developer with a full time job, and side projects, I can easily find myself sitting in a chair for 12+ hours a day. I recently purchased a standing desk, and will be using a timer to remind myself when to break for 15-20 minutes for outdoor exercise.

I have forced myself to limit eating out to once per week. And use a sleep tracker to track my sleep, holding myself to getting the right amount, on average, every month.

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#12

Post by richard___ »

rubicon33 wrote: post #11

"We found that women who sat longer did not have shorter telomere length if they exercised for at least 30 minutes a day" In other words, you can't exercise away an unhealthy life style. That's very similar to diet. In fact, the big 3 (diet, exercise, and sleep) taken together are far greater than the sum of their parts. As a developer with a full time job, and side projects, I can easily find myself sitting in a cha…

Are you sure a standing desk helps at all? Is standing enough to negate the negative effects or is movement required

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#13

Post by tertius »

CardenB wrote: post #10
jMyles wrote: post #7

I'm reluctant to be this commenter, but this honestly reads like "sky is blue" kind of thinking. Worse: it is likely that nobody knows the "best" formula for physical-activity-unto-staying-young. Think about how difficult a problem this is. And even if there were a plausible, scientifically defensible answer in terms of the effect of specific routines on a sample population, it's still very difficult to generally app…

I think (and maybe it's quite obvious) the trick is that exercise makes you feel temporarily worse. It's difficult to evaluate how you'll feel deep into a routine before starting to build those habits.

Depends on your definition of "feel worse".

Is it bad to feel out of breath? I quite enjoy it in certain contexts.

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#14

Post by NickBusey »

richard___ wrote: post #12
rubicon33 wrote: post #11

"We found that women who sat longer did not have shorter telomere length if they exercised for at least 30 minutes a day" In other words, you can't exercise away an unhealthy life style. That's very similar to diet. In fact, the big 3 (diet, exercise, and sleep) taken together are far greater than the sum of their parts. As a developer with a full time job, and side projects, I can easily find myself sitting in a cha…

Are you sure a standing desk helps at all? Is standing enough to negate the negative effects or is movement required

I've been using a standing desk for years now, and while you're not exactly doing jumping jacks the whole time, I certainly move a lot more than I do when I sit down. Just shifting weight from leg to leg, changing standing position, occasionally stretching/touching my toes. You end up making many more small movements than when you're just plopped in a chair.

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#15

Post by Apocryphon »

NickBusey wrote: post #14
richard___ wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure a standing desk helps at all? Is standing enough to negate the negative effects or is movement required

I've been using a standing desk for years now, and while you're not exactly doing jumping jacks the whole time, I certainly move a lot more than I do when I sit down. Just shifting weight from leg to leg, changing standing position, occasionally stretching/touching my toes. You end up making many more small movements than when you're just plopped in a chair.

I wonder if it's micro-movements, or if people who are already standing are more likely to walk around more often.

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#16

Post by thret »

tertius wrote: post #13
CardenB wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think (and maybe it's quite obvious) the trick is that exercise makes you feel temporarily worse. It's difficult to evaluate how you'll feel deep into a routine before starting to build those habits.

Depends on your definition of "feel worse". Is it bad to feel out of breath? I quite enjoy it in certain contexts.

It also depends on your definition of exercise, and sex as you are hinting doesn't necessarily count :)

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#17

Post by blueside »

I switched to a standup desk 5 years ago. I got a dog 3 years ago. I don't sit anymore and she forces me to take her for two walks almost everyday.

I don't exactly have more energy and I don't feel like I'm going to live forever, but I have noticed I am aging slightly slower than my colleagues who are forced to sit down in their offices for over 12 hours a day.

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#18

Post by DrScump »

rubicon33 wrote: post #11

"We found that women who sat longer did not have shorter telomere length if they exercised for at least 30 minutes a day" In other words, you can't exercise away an unhealthy life style. That's very similar to diet. In fact, the big 3 (diet, exercise, and sleep) taken together are far greater than the sum of their parts. As a developer with a full time job, and side projects, I can easily find myself sitting in a cha…

In other words, you can't exercise away an unhealthy life style.>

Did you interpret that backwards? (shorter telomeres: bad)

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#19

Post by branchless »

CardenB wrote: post #10
jMyles wrote: post #7

I'm reluctant to be this commenter, but this honestly reads like "sky is blue" kind of thinking. Worse: it is likely that nobody knows the "best" formula for physical-activity-unto-staying-young. Think about how difficult a problem this is. And even if there were a plausible, scientifically defensible answer in terms of the effect of specific routines on a sample population, it's still very difficult to generally app…

I think (and maybe it's quite obvious) the trick is that exercise makes you feel temporarily worse. It's difficult to evaluate how you'll feel deep into a routine before starting to build those habits.

I think it's a question of how much you "go at it".

Unhealthy people who begin exercise take themselves to a point most people rarely do when training. How many regular runners go until they feel like being sick? It's no wonder unfit people don't maintain their routine. Frequent runners might do one session in a few where they push themselves, but even then they don't feel like obese people do when they go out and try to run hard.

People should run until they feel quite sweaty and a bit tired. If you are fat and that is 5 minutes then yes it's going to take you a long time to get fit, but better to start small and build up. Don't expect too much too soon.

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#20

Post by CaptSpify »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #8

Here is something most people can do that will have great impact on your overall health: take a walking break at work. Besides the health benefits it will help you clear your head and possibly find a solution to that problem, get some sun, chat with a co-worker about life, etc....

I used to hang out with the smokers at my last job. I don't smoke, but I found leaving and coming back to a problem helped me approach it in new ways. I used to always joke that the smoking employees were "cheating", so I could cheat too. Obviously I'd advocate walking over smoking though.
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