By now, most if us have heard terms such as "sitting is the new smoking," and other catchy headlines in a similar vein. And it's true, inactivity is seen as being the 4th leading risk factor death globally behind high blood pressure, smoking and high blood glucose. Soooo, not quite the new smoking, but arguably, inactivy could certainly be linked to increasing the risk of the high blood pressure and glucose. 

 

Whilst exercise is the seemingly obvious weapon to throw on the front line here, smashing yourself at the gym for a few sessions a week, despite the massive amounts of sweat and swearing that may be involved, still does nothing to combat the risks of sitting for a long time. The pride that you may feel the next day as you lament your crushed quads at the office desk, is short lived, as it is the practice of periods of sitting and inactivity that are the stimulus for bad health juju. 

 

Industry has answered the call to the not sitting thing, by replacing this with standing. Now we can stand at a desk and watch cats fall off stuff whilst pretending to work, defeating the sitting risks with a shiny new standing desk.

 

But stay seated for one more moment. A recent study actually showed that standing at work came with 2 times the risk factor for heart disease, as sitting. 

 

So once again, everything is bad for us, and we are left confused about what to do. Clearly sitting down becoming stressed, eating donuts and lighting up a cigarette will ensure you hit the top 4 pretty hard, so this is not recommended. It could be best to turn towards some logic here.

 

Given the increases of disease incidence with changes in work and leisure practices over the last 100 years, we must be doing something wrong. The attention given to sitting, and now standing, as something the cool kids aren't doing, indicates that being still probably isn't the greatest thing for us. Activity is the key to ensuring blood circulates back to the heart, and reduces that strain of poor postural positions held for long periods of time. The constant work of muscles also allows for a process known as muscle mediated glucose uptake, which basically means we can transport glucose into working muscle, without the need for insulin. This means less glucose being stored as fat, and less insulin spikes, lower blood pressure, better oxygenation of blood and lower blood pressure.

 

I'm aware that working whilst running isn't the easiest way to get things done, so variety is the key. Treadmill and bike desks are great, but still come with repetitive loading patterns that may have there own set of issues, as well as having a high barrier to entry for the average office. In my line of work I rarely sit, but when I do, I use a swiss ball, and not for the touted core activation benefits (that i think are fairly iffy). Sitting on the swiss ball encourages me to constantly move and change position as I roll the ball around-but this might also be because I'm not the greatest at sitting still for long!

 

 

A good compromise may be a sit to stand desk with a little activity every 45-60 minutes. Placing water on the opposite side of the office is a good strategy, and setting an alarm on the desktop to walk around and grab a drink at the end of each scheduled block. Coming back for a standing session for 20 mins then sitting for 20 with some heel raises and marching means we can avoid the toll of inactivity. 

Would you like to know exactly what to do to counter the bad stuff from sitting??

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