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Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

nytimes.com

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Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#41

Post by sixdimensional »

Taking a bigger picture view, this makes me wonder.. we took so much effort to move from the industrial age, where hands on work, always active all day work took its toll on workers, to the service or knowledge age, where we sit all day and that takes its toll.

Surely the answer lies somewhere in-between, that we must rest, and we must move, and the amount of each must be relative to each person and activity.

I would prefer to see studies not just trying to prove things bad (we have enough of those), but focuses on what can be proven to be a positive, for example, the optimal mixture of activity and rest for different people and situations.

For example, in addition to "sitting may be bad for your heart" (while necessary and important), I would like to see more of the studies that say "for age group , occupation , walking for interval followed by resting for interval increased or positive benefits".

Since we automated a lot of manual labor, maybe the next big thing is automating sitting all day so we can get up and walk around.

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#42

Post by austinjp »

gxs wrote: post #11

Went to an orthopedic doc for an achy leg/back/knee. Gave me the usual prescription: strengthen some core muscles, physical therapy, anti inflammatory meds for a couple weeks, and should be good to go. Also, however, he prescribed that I read the book Deskbound, by Kelly Starrett. Reading that book will definitely give you an incentive to not sit for long periods of time.

Weasel words perhaps, but Kelly Starrett really divides physical therapist communities. Some love him, some hate him. Personally I think he's often "right for the wrong reasons". But if his approach gets you feeling better, that's what's important.

Ditto workouts for "core muscles".

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#43

Post by have_faith »

nxsynonym wrote: post #28
bluGill wrote: post #25

Unfortunately while there is evidence that sitting all day is bad, we don't know if/what alternatives are good. Is standing better, or do you need to move? Maybe it is staring at something close (monitor, papers...) and sitting is only bad as a proxy (I know of no study that can actually say that hypothesis is wrong even though I just made it up). Modern life currently requires a lot of people to spend a lot of time…

I think the only real alternative is to get rid of the 8+ hour work day. Correct me if there is evidence to the contrary, but I don't think humans were designed to sit or stand in one position for extended periods of time, habitually. Unfortunately I don't see the 8 hour work day going away any time soon, so imo the best option is to alternate sitting/standing and take as many walking around breaks as possible.

I don't mind the work day so much, it's the work week that bothers me most. I would rather have a standard 4 day work week.

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#44

Post by yakt »

tormeh wrote: post #40

When I started my fisærst and current job I got back pains after 2 months. I tried walking home every day, which helped, but that's not always possible in winter. What really helped was working out with weight exercises during lunch. No pain since then.

i had back pain for 2 years... which sows up 2 to 4 times a month, i tried many techniques, but with no great result.

But this one technique where you just lie down on the floor upside down fully flat for 20 mins... my back pain just disappeared and never came back for last 6 months...

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#45

Post by keenerd »

nxsynonym wrote: post #28
bluGill wrote: post #25

Unfortunately while there is evidence that sitting all day is bad, we don't know if/what alternatives are good. Is standing better, or do you need to move? Maybe it is staring at something close (monitor, papers...) and sitting is only bad as a proxy (I know of no study that can actually say that hypothesis is wrong even though I just made it up). Modern life currently requires a lot of people to spend a lot of time…

I think the only real alternative is to get rid of the 8+ hour work day. Correct me if there is evidence to the contrary, but I don't think humans were designed to sit or stand in one position for extended periods of time, habitually. Unfortunately I don't see the 8 hour work day going away any time soon, so imo the best option is to alternate sitting/standing and take as many walking around breaks as possible.

> Correct me if there is evidence to the contrary, but I don't think humans were designed to sit or stand in one position for extended periods of time, habitually.

Hard evidence? I can't give you that. But look at all of the other mammals out there. Almost all of them spend substantial amounts of time sitting.

Traditional hunter-gatherer societies do almost of their work and food processing sitting down. Every hobbyist flint-knapper works sitting down.

The difference is they don't use chairs. Sitting in a chair is bad - just consider the risk of embolisms on long flights. It removes the need for your body to actively support itself and restricts motion. Anecdote of size one, but for me the biggest help was getting rid of the traditional "throne" chair and replacing it a very broad stool. I can comfortably sit cross legged on it all day. I'm constantly moving and shifting my weight forwards and back, leaning and reaching since I can't just roll a chair around.

It has required making some unusual furniture to use a computer comfortably. Like all of my keyboards are tilted the "wrong" way (away from me) with the front higher than the back. Much easier on my hands and wrists.

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#46

Post by manmal »

jdc0589 wrote: post #12
feelandcoffee wrote: post #3

I hope this study don't revive the trend of standing desks again. Look I know being sedentary will rob me a few years of life, but going full opposite and being stand 9 to 5 it's Dante inferno at work. Probably the best balance will be having a routine with exercise present, and small breaks to stand and walk a little bit at X minutes sitting.

revive the trend? its still in full force so far as I can tell. One of our offices just moved to a new building and got (small) motorized standing desks for everyone. I thought I would hate it, but honestly having the option is nice. Plus, its a lot easier to look at something with a coworker standing for some reason. Sadly I'm almost never in that office, I kind of wish I had it all the time.

> Plus, its a lot easier to look at something with a coworker standing for some reason.

So true. I think this is because legs are not in the other person‘s way vs sitting.

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#47

Post by _carl_jung »

sixdimensional wrote: post #41

Taking a bigger picture view, this makes me wonder.. we took so much effort to move from the industrial age, where hands on work, always active all day work took its toll on workers, to the service or knowledge age, where we sit all day and that takes its toll. Surely the answer lies somewhere in-between, that we must rest, and we must move, and the amount of each must be relative to each person and activity. I would…

You might like Spark by John Ratey. That book dives into a bunch of the studies related to this kind of book and got me off my ass and into the gym.

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#49

Post by kaybe »

jdc0589 wrote: post #12
feelandcoffee wrote: post #3

I hope this study don't revive the trend of standing desks again. Look I know being sedentary will rob me a few years of life, but going full opposite and being stand 9 to 5 it's Dante inferno at work. Probably the best balance will be having a routine with exercise present, and small breaks to stand and walk a little bit at X minutes sitting.

revive the trend? its still in full force so far as I can tell. One of our offices just moved to a new building and got (small) motorized standing desks for everyone. I thought I would hate it, but honestly having the option is nice. Plus, its a lot easier to look at something with a coworker standing for some reason. Sadly I'm almost never in that office, I kind of wish I had it all the time.

I like the option of just changing the chair height and/or the desk height every few hours and stay seated. That alone mixes up my posture quite a bit.

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#50

Post by eropple »

haukilup wrote: post #26
feelandcoffee wrote: post #3

I hope this study don't revive the trend of standing desks again. Look I know being sedentary will rob me a few years of life, but going full opposite and being stand 9 to 5 it's Dante inferno at work. Probably the best balance will be having a routine with exercise present, and small breaks to stand and walk a little bit at X minutes sitting.

What's bad about the trend - don't offices typically give you a choice of which you'd prefer? Previous workplaces I've been at had the option of an Ikea adjustable height desk for people who would occasionally switch between the two.

I've had one of those and it was okay, but I much prefer my home setup - a standing-height desk and a draft-height chair. Nothing needs to move to switch, and so I switch regularly throughout the day.
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