Except for a few exceptional cases, eating right and exercising helps almost everyone feel and look better.
Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging
141–150 of 321 posts
Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pushups. They are the single best full body exercise, that can be done ANYWHERE, and rather quickly. When you've reached a sufficient rep, add a dip bar. Pull-ups should also be part of your routine as well. Every hour or so while working at the computer, I'll get down and knock out twenty pushups or so. You'll be surprised at how fast you build up muscle endurance, and your lower back pain will be gone.
Pushups are great, but don't just do pushups - you definitely want to integrate pull-ups to get a balance between chest & back. If your chest muscles are overdeveloped relative to your back, you are exacerbating the bad computer posture of shoulders rolled forward and forward head posture known as upper crossed syndrome.
For 99% of people here just push-ups will be much better than nothing, it's much harder to find a pull up bar than do push-ups. You won't get overdeveloped muscle just from push-ups.
Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you really notice aging of yourself and others who you work with over a period of just 5 years ? My coworkers look largely the same (to me) as they did 5 years ago, just with different hair styles. And I'm even less capable of noticing any age related differences in myself over a five year period.
Not OP, but, yes. I'm regularly mistaken for being 5-7 younger than I am. I notice differences when I look at many high school friends. These differences weren't apparent 5-6 years prior, but they grow more visible with the passage of time. And it's not everyone. Some people hardly look different from high school. Other looks five years past their biological age.
It's the same thing for me, although I am not active at all.
I even get carded when buying beer (I have been able to buy beer in Norway for 18 years now).
When i was in Mexico last summer people kept asking what I ate and how I stayed so young. I don't do shit!.. Well I don't eat meat more than once or twice a week but I don't think that has anything to do with it.
Personally I believe that most of this stuff has to do with genes rather than exercise but, but I don't doubt that if you exercise moderately you will live longer than your genetic baseline.
Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging
#144Earlier 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 think a standing/adjustable desk is a good solution, but you should be able to sit down and, more importantly, put your feet above your waist for a while, occasionally. Otherwise you may ruin the veins in your legs in the long run. (I'm not a doctor.)
If you use a standing desk, I'd recommend also getting a thick rubber mat for the floor (the industrial kind line chefs and people who stand for hours use, you can easily find these on Amazon).
Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
"We need better-quality studies to really determine if sitting makes people sick" This. A thousand times this. I ask because as a programmer I spend roughly 10-12 hours sitting at work and roughly 3 hours at home, with maybe an hour of walking each day, and I would like to know if I am prone to aging and being sick more due to my sitting habit or its just wrong interpretation of data and there is no significant corre…
I think if you are walking a solid hour a day every day you are getting your exercise just fine. Even half an hour a day of walking is good.
There are studies suggesting that exercise does not totally cancel out the damage caused by long hours of sitting.
Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging
#146What's the best exercise just to stay healthy? And what frequency? I would hate to exercise for years just to find out it actually harmed my health.
Every time you close a ticket reward yourself with 10 push-ups or crunches. I know a guy that got a six-pack doing this. After doing it for a while hormones will start to kick in and you will crave it, meaning you will be more productive!
Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging
#147My view might be classified as 'odd', but this is how I look at this problem, and this is what I ended up doing: I do not mind living a decade shorter than those ones who are more active than me. I have tried to be active, but could not fit it into my mentality. Note that I did not say my lifestyle, I said my mentality. I am unable to be active. I was not an active person a a kid, and I am not one as an adult. If I a…
Except it's not about a decade. Good friend of mine died at 30 from obesity induced cardiomyopathy. Then we talk about quality of life. I run, lift, and generally workout because I want to maintain quality of life as much as length. My Aunt is 95 and still runs 5k every day. Guess who isn't an invalid in her autumn years?
They OP's logic makes sense if you don't consider quality of life and energy levels.
I find exercise makes me more energetic in general and improves clarity of mind.
Some other improvements (possibly attributed to placebo?) are really hard to put in words, but it feels like my body and mind just crave for energy release.
Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging
#148What's the best exercise just to stay healthy? And what frequency? I would hate to exercise for years just to find out it actually harmed my health.
My advice would be to incorporate it as part of your everyday life. Cycle to work, if you live far, get a battery assisted bike. I am a massive fan of yoga as well, the general and core strength you need for that is incredible along with keeping your body limber (which helps fighting injuries and just generally helps with people sitting a lot). Get in a pool and just go as fast as you can, for as long as you can. Tak…
I'm surprised you mention swimming has changed your life. I was always suspicious of the way I had begun thinking of my life in terms of "Before Swimming" and "After Swimming" phases.
Has this been your experience too ? I used to bike an hour a day earlier, but swimming has done something else to my well-being and productivity.
Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think if you are walking a solid hour a day every day you are getting your exercise just fine. Even half an hour a day of walking is good.
There are studies suggesting that exercise does not totally cancel out the damage caused by long hours of sitting.
Alternatively, you can use a standing desk, or switch between a sitting and a standing desk. That way you have an additional litte exercise during the working hours.
Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging
#150The ROI:
Spending time with mindless exercise: 1/48 part of a year times 70 years is 1.46 years.
If true that's around 8 more years in return for every 1.5 you put in. Nice ROI. :-)