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Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

elth.co

161–170 of 184 posts

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#161
post #35

Why not get a standing desk? https://www.runnersworld.com/sweat-science/standing-all-day-... And so is lying down in bed :) https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/why-is-it-a-bad-idea-to-st... Oh, and what about running https://www.active.com/health/articles/why-too-much-running-... https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-knee It seems the best is normal movement and walking, and taking breaks. Too much of anything is bad. B…

This is a known result of using what is called "NHST", null hypothesis significance testing, to come to conclusions. It will automatically generate conflicting results and does nothing to lead to cumulative knowledge. Some discussion of that aspect can be found here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10153165 http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-04469-001

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im at the point where I am going to be forced to be outright rude Our society is at a point where there are large numbers of people who think their feelings trump larger concerns, like those of the workplace, their job, driver/pedestrian safety, and the rule of law. There is a set of ideas that involves executive function, the delay of gratification, the adherence to ideals, and subsuming the petty ego. It's called b…

While you do have a point, it's not much of a stretch to go from that point to sacrificing your overall life satisfaction for the sake of the job/work/whatever arbitrary societal standard exists. To elaborate on that (I'm not suggesting this is your message, though it may be), when I was only a few years younger having lucked into a lucrative job, I took work hyper seriously. I looked down on and distanced myself—int…

As in many things, there is a balance. You should put yourself first in terms of the balance of your overall life. You should not put your ego first in terms of the fidelity of information you get from the universe! Those are two very different things. If one starts to conflate one's overall personal goals with how they feel about momentary feedback -- this is one of the roads to madness!

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#163

Many people here seem to be talking about how they have improved their commute or go to the gym a couple times a week. The article isn't about exercising once or twice a day though. It's about you sitting around too much during the day. Not regularly being even minorly active, no? Perhaps I'm mistaken but it seems like the people talking about their once or twice a day exercise arent on the same page as the article.

You are right and they are wrong. Sitting for extended periods is correlated with heart disease and other problems regardless of fitness. I've talked with multiple physical therapists about it and they've been very clear about that distinction. Other commenters here are missing the point.

Hah, cool. Nice to know you've talked to a variety of people.

I myself don't do enough of either so I'm not helping myself enough yet.

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While you do have a point, it's not much of a stretch to go from that point to sacrificing your overall life satisfaction for the sake of the job/work/whatever arbitrary societal standard exists. To elaborate on that (I'm not suggesting this is your message, though it may be), when I was only a few years younger having lucked into a lucrative job, I took work hyper seriously. I looked down on and distanced myself—int…

As in many things, there is a balance. You should put yourself first in terms of the balance of your overall life. You should not put your ego first in terms of the fidelity of information you get from the universe! Those are two very different things. If one starts to conflate one's overall personal goals with how they feel about momentary feedback -- this is one of the roads to madness!

I agree. It's not how things get done.

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#165
post #45

I am using lately 'nearby events happening now' apps to get myself away from the screen on the weekends and meet people for sports and hobbies. It's really liberating.

Is there one you can recommend ?

drop!in (http://idrop.in) is good (imho)

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#166
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I took up Kendo about 18 months ago, and the regularly scheduled classes and training sessions are good for forcing me off the computer and go work up a sweat. I especially love the little 30 second meditation we do at the start and end of each class. Mokuso was integral to teaching me to relax and focus; I try to continue meditating even though I haven't done kendo for years, but some days I just want to be sittin…

Mokuso, 黙想, "idea of silence", pretty much translates to "meditation".

Why "idea of silence" and not "silent thinking"?

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#167
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Think back to grade school after you learned how to do long division. Then pretend you didn't have pencil and paper, so you had to do it in your head. If someone interrupted you right in the middle, wouldn't it be hard to get that context back and continue? It would for me. At that point, I would most likely have to start again at the beginning.

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#168
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 am a developer and get lots done, but I don't have to work in a sweat shop where I have so much pressure that I cannot have the occasional social conversation or entertain someone else's occasional social conversation. In my opinion an office full of head down developers who don't feel they can talk to anyone, is a horrible environment to spend 1/3 of your life in.

> In my opinion an office full of head down developers who don't feel they can talk to anyone, is a horrible environment to spend 1/3 of your life in.

I agree with that. But I also think that being in an office full of developers that can't use their "inside voice" is a horrible environment to spend 1/3 of your life in.

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#169

Earlier 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.

Honestly I think you're part of the problem. It sounds like you are being pushed to a brink where you feel the need to be rude. The situation should've been addressed before you felt yourself at the brink. Do you have a manager you can sit down with for ten minutes and explain this dynamic to? It's possible your colleagues don't fully understand the implications of their actions and would happily oblige you if they o…

Not OP but similar situation.

> Do you have a manager you can sit down with for ten minutes and explain this dynamic to?

Yes, he disagrees with my position.

> It's possible your colleagues don't fully understand the implications of their actions

My colleagues do fully understand.

>...how dysfunctional some office environments are

We just moved into an newly built open office plan RIGHT next to finance (finance has our "loud laugher", you know who I'm talking about). Someone thought this was a good idea....

Re: Sitting down too much is doing more harm to your body than you can imagine

#170

Earlier 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.

I moved office to the other side of the site, up some stairs an into a (admittedly vast) office with no windows in part because of this, people don't get programmers, your 5 minute non-important (to either of us) interruption costs me 15-20 minutes of lost productivity after you walk away from my desk. I have a phone on my desk that is set to flash, not ring and only then if it's the boss, everyone else just silently…

Lucky you. I would love to be able to make that move.
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