Well, I think people are aware of that as we have decent client base just for those who want to track their inactivity time (we've developed a chest strap that tracks lying on bed + sitting).
Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine
101–110 of 184 posts
Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine
#102Every time I read an article like this, I get a bad feeling and I say to myself "I'll definitely exercise more - I don't wanna be all buggy when I get older due to my lifestyle - I'll do this NOW!". Then a couple of hours later, I'm back coding happily seated. I'm sure this is the case for many of us. I wish our brains could keep this bad, guilty-like feeling that makes us take action around for longer.
It is about loving yourself, granting yourself this time for yourself, form a habit, and stick to the habit. There's no need to get to the gym to become a body builder, start slow and aim low instead and compliment yourself for the achievements you made. Being critical of your performance or lack of exercise is only going to demotivate you as beginner.
If you do not exercise at all right now, doing very little is already a big improvement over essentially nothing. The diff between 0 and 15 min is far greater and significant than 15 and 30 min.
You can start with something simple like doing some minor exercises every 5 min after 1 hr of sitting. It is going to help you focus more as well, because your brain will be in diffused instead of focused mode whilst you're exercising.
I can highly recommend Nederland in Beweging on Dutch TV (tho I doubt you're Dutch, American TV is massive so I hope there's something akin to it). It is 15 minutes a day with a warming up and cooling down. The Dutch government (or well, "gezondsheidsraad") recommends 21 minutes a day of movement and twice a week heavy exercise. With those 15 minutes, you're well under way to reach 21 min and the exercises are different every workday, and target different muscles, so your entire body is in the end in shape. That's in contrast to say running 3 times a week. You meet the heavy exercise requirement, but you won't meet the 21 min one, and various of your muscles (e.g. hamstrings and more or less entire arms) will be weak.
Doing this may also very well increase your overall happiness (and decrease depression), increase your focus, decrease your fatigue, and decrease your procrastination.
Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine
#103Meh. I've been sitting at a computer for the past twenty years or so let's be honest. Yet in just a few months I feel my posture improving since I started psychotherapy and somatic experiencing therapy for trauma. Along with that I go to yoga once or twice a week. It's importnat to note here because I see the cogs spinning already... I actually did yoga years ago and did not notice the same effects. Therapy has been…
What kind of therapy?
Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a Tony Robbins video somewhere where he says "in life, you get your standards". I.e. not what you want or desire but what you make an absolute standard. I found it can take time and few mental visits to a problem before this happens. Most of us have standards around hygiene, dental care, personal appearance etc that are almost immutable. If you have a standard that you want to remain fit and that becomes dee…
I never thought I'd find anything useful Tony Robbins ever said, but that sounds true.
I've heard the same idea before, but then it was called identity instead of standards. You have a personal identity that you identify with. You have to permanently change your own personal view of yourself in order to change a behavior long term. Change your identity. It's a way to use cognitive dissonance to your own advantage. If you are doing something that goes against your ingrained view of yourself, then it will be mentally uncomfortable, and you'd rather not be doing it.
I think you can also just call this personal values.
Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine
#105"From making you fat to squeezing your bones, living a sedentary lifestyle has a plethora of negative benefits to offer. Just to give you a clear indication of how much this new age lifestyle impacts your overall health, here’s a graph which shows how likely are you to die based on your fitness level."
With all due respect, where is the source? The problem is that it is very difficult to prove this scientifically. It is plausible that people who exercise more do other things which increase their health, such as smoke less or not at all, drink less or not at all, eat more healthy, are more content in life, are more rich or more educated, etc.
Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
It never ceases to amaze me how much others think they entitled to your time while working. They'll start conversations when all nonverbal signals show you are trying to get something done. Im at the point where I am going to be forced to be outright rude, which is not easy for me, just to be able to work undisturbed.
This holds up to a point, but if your role is so demanding that you cannot hold a conversation (presuming a work conversation but also applies to social - up to a point obviously), then your either not very good at your job or your employer sets unrealistic expectations, or your good and the employer is realistic but you just want to get ahead. I've worked with people that are a clamshell. It's not a very nice enviro…
> if your role is so demanding that you cannot hold a conversation (presuming a work conversation but also applies to social - up to a point obviously), then your either not very good at your job or your employer sets unrealistic expectations...
Or they are a developer. Being interrupted while programming is really rough. It's like being an insomniac and having trouble falling asleep, when someone walks up and starts talking to you riiiight as you're drifting off. Now you're up for another two hours.
Another analogy is you're building a house of cards using your mental concentration - someone distracting you causes you to knock the whole thing down. Oh, and the house of cards is due Friday.
Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine
#107I find that routine is important to getting regular exercise and movement. I am one of those programmers who likes getting into a 'flow' state and working for large blocks of time, so my strategy is to try and get a 1 hr walk in the morning when I wake up. Much as people like to check their Inbox first thing to get it out of the way before starting productive work, I find that getting my walk in the morning before I…
The problem is that being sedentary for hours is not alleviated by working out in the morning or evening. You have to break the flow every hour, or more often, and move.
This is inconvenient truth
Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
This holds up to a point, but if your role is so demanding that you cannot hold a conversation (presuming a work conversation but also applies to social - up to a point obviously), then your either not very good at your job or your employer sets unrealistic expectations, or your good and the employer is realistic but you just want to get ahead. I've worked with people that are a clamshell. It's not a very nice enviro…
> if your role is so demanding that you cannot hold a conversation (presuming a work conversation but also applies to social - up to a point obviously), then your either not very good at your job or your employer sets unrealistic expectations... Or they are a developer. Being interrupted while programming is really rough. It's like being an insomniac and having trouble falling asleep, when someone walks up and starts…
I don't know why people think devs are special in this regard.
Being interrupted is a universal human problem, there is no need for an analogy for something that anyone who works in a professional (or hell even non professional) job experiences.
Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine
#109Every time I read an article like this, I get a bad feeling and I say to myself "I'll definitely exercise more - I don't wanna be all buggy when I get older due to my lifestyle - I'll do this NOW!". Then a couple of hours later, I'm back coding happily seated. I'm sure this is the case for many of us. I wish our brains could keep this bad, guilty-like feeling that makes us take action around for longer.
Guilt is a terrible long-term motivator. For me, two big mental shifts made an enormous difference.
1. I had to stop feeling like someone else was going to tell me how to do it or make me do it. Start going to the gym and do whatever exercises you like doing. Keep showing up, and change your posture. Don't think "I should exercise more." Think "I'll go on Tuesday nights when I don't have as much going on." Work from the assumption that you're already a person who exercises, and just think about the mechanics of actually making time for it. We spend way too much time thinking about how we become gym people instead of just going and exercising.
2. As some other people have pointed out, realize that you can't undo a sedentary work day by working out for an hour at the end of the day. One trick I use is to do pomodoros (25 minute chunks of work) followed by a 3-5 minute break where I get up and just walk or look out the window. If my motivation or focus is flagging, sometimes I'll use that time to read a couple of paragraphs on my Kindle app. (Churchill said "a change is as good as a rest"; sometimes taking your eye of the ball for a minute can help you refocus your mind). By moving a little many times throughout the day, I find I don't build up those slow and steady tensions that ruin your body and will to exercise.
Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine
#110I've seen a lot of articles about sitting but always have some questions: - I work with computers so sitting or standing a large portion of time is inevitable. - Is the real problem sitting/standing, or being unfit? If I don't get fat and if I keep fit, will I be ok? Or will sitting still harm me? - If the claim is that sitting still harms me, how robust is the science here? Do they control for the above? If sitting,…
With all the articles and papers I read, the problem is that you never have to active your body and legs' muscles, even just slightly. Sometimes even your arms' muscles. And this kills us.
The solution to all the problems this create for your body is to use your muscles, and even just a little bit is enough.
- If you are usually standing: you don't have to be standing up for hours, just a few hours are enough.
- If you are usually sitting: a yoga ball is great. You don't have to move all around, keeping your balance on the ball will be good enough.
- And every hour you can take a quick break, or talk to someone so you will move out of your computer and use your muscles.