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Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

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Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#31

Post by deminature »

pazimzadeh wrote: post #28

This seems like one of the things that VR/AR might fix. Speaking as someone who tried VR for the first time at the mall yesterday (HTC Vive). Reminds me of Bret Victor's Seeing Spaces http://worrydream.com/SeeingSpaces/ .

Agreed, reading the reviews for popular VR games like Fruit Ninja [1] and Holopoint [2], lots of people are reporting getting a pretty substantial workout from just playing the game. The hypothetical future of gamers being some of the fittest members of society, instead of least active, might not be so implausible.

You can also imagine gyms might replace some of their cardio equipment with VR setups, should VR prove to be comparable to existing equipment in workout effectiveness. Even if it wasn't as effective, people might prefer it due to the reduced boredom factor.

[1] http://store.steampowered.com/app/486780/

[2] http://store.steampowered.com/app/457960/

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#32

Post by jnordwick »

blueside wrote: post #17

I switched to a standup desk 5 years ago. I got a dog 3 years ago. I don't sit anymore and she forces me to take her for two walks almost everyday. I don't exactly have more energy and I don't feel like I'm going to live forever, but I have noticed I am aging slightly slower than my colleagues who are forced to sit down in their offices for over 12 hours a day.

Standing desks not really good for you. Just a fad. (F Google amp too)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl...

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#33

Post by geoka9 »

bmj wrote: post #29
branchless wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a question of how much you "go at it". Unhealthy people who begin exercise take themselves to a point most people rarely do when training. How many regular runners go until they feel like being sick? It's no wonder unfit people don't maintain their routine. Frequent runners might do one session in a few where they push themselves, but even then they don't feel like obese people do when they go out and tr…

I've been training seriously for rock climbing for several years now (I've been a climber for a long time, as well as an endurance athlete--runner, cyclist), and the conventional wisdom being applied from other domains (general strength training, weight lifting) is that if you want to get strong (not necessarily bulk up, but just increase your strength), you never work to the point of feeling completely knackered. It…

True, but I don't think interval training (without weights) will help in building muscle.

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#34

Post by reneherse »

richard___ wrote: post #12
rubicon33 wrote: post #11

"We found that women who sat longer did not have shorter telomere length if they exercised for at least 30 minutes a day" In other words, you can't exercise away an unhealthy life style. That's very similar to diet. In fact, the big 3 (diet, exercise, and sleep) taken together are far greater than the sum of their parts. As a developer with a full time job, and side projects, I can easily find myself sitting in a cha…

Are you sure a standing desk helps at all? Is standing enough to negate the negative effects or is movement required

I found the adjustable stand up desk to be really only part of the ideal solution. Standing all the time aggravated circulation problems, so I added a treadmill specifically designed to be used at a desk. Now it's easy to walk miles a day, at whatever pace fits with the task at hand. The desk is on wheels, so I roll it away from the treadmill when I want to sit. I vary between sitting, perched sitting, standing, walking, and reclining while on the computer. (Working at home.)

I also just ordered a Cubii under-desk elliptical, for use at the office where a treadmill and moving around would be intrusive. Like many here, my job and several hobby projects involve working on computers, and all that sedentary time adds up if you don't combat it.

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#35

Post by gragas »

rubicon33 wrote: post #11

"We found that women who sat longer did not have shorter telomere length if they exercised for at least 30 minutes a day" In other words, you can't exercise away an unhealthy life style. That's very similar to diet. In fact, the big 3 (diet, exercise, and sleep) taken together are far greater than the sum of their parts. As a developer with a full time job, and side projects, I can easily find myself sitting in a cha…

>"We found that women who sat longer did not have shorter telomere length if they exercised for at least 30 minutes a day"

>In other words, you can't exercise away an unhealthy life style.

I conclude exactly the opposite.

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#36

Post by zeamaize »

CardenB wrote: post #10
jMyles wrote: post #7

I'm reluctant to be this commenter, but this honestly reads like "sky is blue" kind of thinking. Worse: it is likely that nobody knows the "best" formula for physical-activity-unto-staying-young. Think about how difficult a problem this is. And even if there were a plausible, scientifically defensible answer in terms of the effect of specific routines on a sample population, it's still very difficult to generally app…

I think (and maybe it's quite obvious) the trick is that exercise makes you feel temporarily worse. It's difficult to evaluate how you'll feel deep into a routine before starting to build those habits.

Exercise feels great. It wears you down but it makes you feel alive! Exercise is the time during the day I am most at peace and relaxed. No work bullshit, just me and my goals.

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#37

Post by david___sh »

My 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 aggregate all those activity hours together with all the stress about being more active (including following the effectiveness of standing desk news), it could maybe worth a couple of years of my life. I subtracted those years from that one decade, and decided that I am ok with not having that part of my life.

I continue programming 14 hours a day in the sitting style.

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#39

Post by zeamaize »

branchless wrote: post #19
CardenB wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think (and maybe it's quite obvious) the trick is that exercise makes you feel temporarily worse. It's difficult to evaluate how you'll feel deep into a routine before starting to build those habits.

I think it's a question of how much you "go at it". Unhealthy people who begin exercise take themselves to a point most people rarely do when training. How many regular runners go until they feel like being sick? It's no wonder unfit people don't maintain their routine. Frequent runners might do one session in a few where they push themselves, but even then they don't feel like obese people do when they go out and tr…

Part of the problem here is the obesity angle. Obese people are sick, they have a serious disease, they cannot pursue fitness until they fix their underlying weight problem. Obese and overweight people need to focus on getting their diet healthy while doing very moderate exercise. Fitness only comes after you hit a healthy weight.

Re: Too much sitting, too little exercise may accelerate biological aging

#40

Post by geoka9 »

richard___ wrote: post #12
rubicon33 wrote: post #11

"We found that women who sat longer did not have shorter telomere length if they exercised for at least 30 minutes a day" In other words, you can't exercise away an unhealthy life style. That's very similar to diet. In fact, the big 3 (diet, exercise, and sleep) taken together are far greater than the sum of their parts. As a developer with a full time job, and side projects, I can easily find myself sitting in a cha…

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.)

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