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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

#61

Post by sliverstorm »

bluGill wrote: post #59
sliverstorm wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always understood a lot of the industrial age jobs took a toll because of hazards & health issues. Occupational hazards like mine collapse & black lung, heavy machinery, fumes, and so forth. Are there many accounts of people simply being "all worn out" from hands on work? Are, e.g., lumberjacks who aren't injured, healthy or worn thin?

Yes, but it isn't clear if they are worn out from 45 years of physical labor, or worn out because their body is 65 years old.

Presumably that's what studies would be for. Compare the joints of an office worker to the joints of an uninjured lumberjack.

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#62

Post by Jemmeh »

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…

Standing desk + anti fatigue mat + tall rolling chair. You can sit or stand any time, don't have to adjust the desk, and standing is less tiring. No need for an adjustable desk is also cheaper.

I will say the one downside is I'm short and even at the lowest settings the tall rolling chairs sometimes have the foot rest too far away for me. I prefer to rest my feet on the floor.

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#63

Post by skummetmaelk »

CM30 wrote: post #55
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…

Stick the computer on an exercise bike, set it up so its powered by a dynamo and get the programming, marketing and sales teams to cycle while working. Okay, that's not a good idea, but it's one I can see a executive coming up with to 'promote a healthy lifestyle' at one of those newfangled offices Apple and Google and the likes have.

Enforce mandatory installation of a processor throttling program, tied to an exercise bike, on all software developer machines. This should prevent them from slacking off when compiling!

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#64

Post by RankingMember »

keenerd wrote: post #45
nxsynonym wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 hobbyi…

Got any pictures of this stool?

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#65

Post by tintor »

CM30 wrote: post #55
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…

Stick the computer on an exercise bike, set it up so its powered by a dynamo and get the programming, marketing and sales teams to cycle while working. Okay, that's not a good idea, but it's one I can see a executive coming up with to 'promote a healthy lifestyle' at one of those newfangled offices Apple and Google and the likes have.

Apple and Google already have walking treadmill desks, which serves the same purpose.

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#66

Post by yepguy »

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…

My guess is that the solution involves squatting instead of sitting, although the West has lost the ability to squat comfortably for prolonged periods of time.

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#67

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#68

Post by glenstein »

Every time an article about the (very important!) dangers of sitting makes the rounds, it always brings in people with a bad case of switcheroo fever, who come in and say something to the effect of "well actually, standing can cause injuries too!"

But that's never followed up with any clear conclusions about the relative dangers of standing vs. sitting. The conversation is left with a dangling implication that maybe standing is just as bad as sitting. Or worse, we're left with a vague, open ended exhortation about how the body is really complicated.

This always annoys the heck out of me. At a bare minimum, we should at least be able to come away from these articles with the conclusion that we shouldn't sit for substantial periods, and that we definitely should throw ourselves into some other alternative, whatever it's complications are.

The risk of injuries from standing should be mitigated however they have to be mitigated, but it we shouldn't let that complication muddy the waters on the more fundamental point about sedentary behavior still being bad even if the alternatives have problems too.

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#69

Post by vram22 »

Steve44 wrote: post #34
sdiupIGPWEfh wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as if it's lack of constant (even low-grade) activity that's the problem, rather than whether you're sitting or standing. Perhaps not moving all day is the cause.

I bought an Aeron chair a few years ago and although it's fantastically comfortable I feel a downside is sometimes I don't move for several hours if I get engrossed in work. Once they are set up right I've not sat in any work chair which comes close. As I said, I'm not sure that's a good thing because of the length of time I can sit. I do wiggle a bit but often don't even stand up. I was toying with getting a sand ti…

Yes, I agree. See my other comment that is a sibling to yours.

Re: Sitting May Be Bad for Your Heart

#70

Post by ibdf »

CM30 wrote: post #55
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…

Stick the computer on an exercise bike, set it up so its powered by a dynamo and get the programming, marketing and sales teams to cycle while working. Okay, that's not a good idea, but it's one I can see a executive coming up with to 'promote a healthy lifestyle' at one of those newfangled offices Apple and Google and the likes have.

My co-worker has bike peddles underneath his standing desk. So he either stands most of the day while working or sits down and peddle some. I was laughing at first, but it actually seems like a good idea. I am not sure if he is healthier or more productive but he is happy ;)
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