Wednesday musings, 9/21/16: on sitting and moving

A quick google search on sitting turns up the following headlines:
“Sitting is the new smoking: ways a sedentary lifestyle is killing you”
“Is sitting the new smoking?”
“Sitting risks: how harmful is too much sitting?” 
“Sitting will kill you, even if you exercise”

Fear, of course, isn’t always the best way to get people to change their habits. In addition, is sitting all day that much better than standing in place all day?

An article in the most recent issue of “Outside” magazine argues no, standing in place all day isn’t necessarily better (though experts agree being on your feet two to four hours a day is a good thing). Interspersing movement throughout the day, however, does seem to be protective against the disease of disuse. “The stillness is what’s killing us.”*

Sitting isn’t bad. Sitting too much is. Standing isn’t bad. Standing too much might be. Moving isn’t bad; the inability to rest might be.** If you are prone to not moving much while you are at your desk, set a timer to go off once every 90 minutes. When it goes off, take two minutes to move around. Squat, reach down to the floor, hula hoop… Do whatever strikes your fancy for two minutes and then go back to work. By incorporating little bursts of movement you can improve your overall health (and maybe your productivity. Taking a brief break from what you are doing is believed to improve focus creativity for the project at hand).

*Quote: Christopher Keys, journalist, Outside magazine October, 2016.
**This is mentioned on an article about recovery in the same magazine.