How to Prevent Prolonged Sitting from Killing You
If you think exercising can offset the health consequences of prolonged sitting, think again
According to a study published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, men who spent more than 23 hours a week watching TV and sitting in their cars had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from coronary heart disease than those who sat for 11 hours a week or less.
If you think those men who sat long hours and developed heart problems were coach potatoes who never exercised, you’ll be surprised that many did and some even led what experts considered as active lifestyles.
In other words, researchers discovered that working hard in the gym may not be enough to undo the ill effects caused by long periods of sitting.
No, I’m not suggesting that you should cancel your gym membership. If anything, the study highlights the importance of staying active.
But it also alerts us to the danger of those long sedentary hours we spend out of gym that we thought are okay as long as we sweat it out at the end of the day.
And it’s incredibly easy to clock 23 hours of sitting a week. You just need to spend 3.3 hours a day surfing the net, playing computer games, watching TV, or traveling in a car to hit this target. I, for one, is guilty of staring at the monitor for extended period of time almost on a daily basis and would have easily won any who-can-sit-on-your-butt-the-longest contest.
Besides slowly inflicting harm to our heart, prolonged sitting in a fixed, and especially wrong, position can also lead to chronic back and neck pains, blood clot in deep veins (aka deep vein thrombosis), overweight and obesity. It may also be a contributing cause of hemorrhoids, or more commonly known as piles.
So how can we stop destroying our back, and our heart? Here are some options:
How to Stay Active in Prolonged Sitting
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Eat away from your desk
Whenever you need to grab a bite, get away from your desk. Bring your food somewhere else where you can eat without having to stare at the screen. Go to the staff cafeteria, or explore the new eatery that has just opened down the street. The point is to create as many opportunities to get up and walk as you can.
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Make exercises part of your job
For every hour of sitting at work, get up and do some body weight exercises. Some good exercises I find especially invigorating are squat, push-up (on the floor or against the wall) and crunch.
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Stand on one-leg
If you’re too shy to do body weight exercises in the office, try standing on one leg. Hold on to a chair with one hand if you need help balancing. This is an excellent exercise to improve balance, which we tend to lose as we age. Just hold on to this pose for 30 seconds, and then switch your leg. That’s one complete set. Repeat for a total of three sets.
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Use a stand-up desk
While it may not always be feasible to replace your office table with a treadmill desk, at least explore the possibility of getting a stand-up desk. This will allow, or rather, force you to stand instead of sitting on your butt all day long.
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Ditch the elevator, love the stairs
You don’t need to hit the gym to use a StairMaster machine. Every building has one and it’s totally free. Make full use of it.
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Break up long ride
Although occasional long ride isn’t much of a concern, it’s a different story altogether if your job regularly requires you to sit for 3 hours or more at a stretch, be it in a car or on an airplane. Try to take 10-minute breaks every hour to get out of your seat, stand up and walk around, even if that means you’ll get to your destination at a later time. You owe your heart and your back a break!
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Build in strategic inconvenience
When everything you need is only one arm’s away, you’ll be forever glued to your chair. Place your telephone at a distance that forces you to stand up to answer any call. Likewise for other office equipment and items like fax machine, printer, photocopier, folders and even your wastepaper basket.
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Pace for creative ideas
Need creative ideas? Don’t just sit there and stare at the screen. Pace around your office, or take a walk in the park if that’s acceptable. It will get your blood flowing, literally.
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Welcome guests with open arms (and upright legs!)
Make a point to stand up when clients and co-workers pop by your office. They, and your legs, will feel the difference!
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Limit TV and computer games
If you spend a great deal of time in front of the TV or computer after work, give yourself a time limit and stick to it. You’ve sat long enough at work, don’t kill yourself by sitting more.
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Do walking meditation
Learn how to do walking meditation. If you drive to work, park your car further away from your office building instead of using the parking lots right in front of it. If you take the public transport, alight one stop earlier instead of the one nearest to your destination.
Walking meditation is quite simple, as most meditations are. As you walk, simply pay full attention to each stride that you make — the sensation of your sole pressing against the shoe and how your shoe in turn pushes against the ground, as well as the corresponding coordination that must take place in order for you to execute the movement which you’ve taken for granted.
It isn’t just a physical exercise, it’s also a mental workout to shed off stressful and anxious thoughts, and get the creative juices flowing.
How do you stay active in your desk-bound job? Share them with us in the comments!
yes but all this advice is band-aid unless you just show up at the office but spend about half the time running around trying to stay active. I am expected to work 7 hours a day 5 times a week (I excluded lunchtime). That is already 35 hours a week so to actually bring it down to 23 I only have 2 options 1) I should NOT work (because it’s not possible to do my job unless I am at my desk) for 12 hours a week about 2 hours day, so extend my 15-30 min. coffee break to 2 hours!
And this would only work if I don’t sit down at all after work?! OR 2) work sitting up but since I am not the boss and super self-conscious I probably can’t do that.. that means if I continue with my full-time desk job I am doomed no matter how much I run up and down the stairs at lunchtime!
Studies have shown that most people spend 75 to 95% of their waking hours sitting. The health care cost of inactivity is estimated to be $150 billion annually. With all the studies that show the health benefits of being active, all you have to do is move on a regular basis.
Thanks for sharing, Darvis. I can’t agree more. If only we move around more often, perhaps we wouldn’t be seeing the population’s annual medical spending increasing relentlessly every year. But on the other hand, I share the same challenges as many who work behind the desk every day. That’s why I’ve written this article to remind myself to sit lesser and move around more during office hours. Hope these suggestions are also useful to those who are in the same situation as well.