Overcoming The Negative Effects Of Too Much Sitting

Seniority Matters note: Sibyl's blogpost is so timely, and serves as a great response to the recent New York Times blog depicting the workplace as a major culprit in today's obesity epidemic.

"The science of sedentary behavior, also called inactivity physiology, is an emerging field of research in health, fitness and medicine. This field involves the study of sitting for extended periods of time and the biological ramifications associated with it.

In the United States, adults and children spend the majority of their day in various forms of sedentary behavior, such as riding in a car, working at a desk, eating a meal at a table, playing video games, working on a computer, and watching television.", says Len Kravitz PHD, in an article published in the October 2009 IDEA Fitness Journal.

Sitting for prolonged periods of time can increase the mortality risk from cardiovascular disease. So what can you do if you spend one hour a day commuting to work, four to eight hours sitting in front of a computer and two hours watching television? 

You can break up long periods of sitting during work by:

• Walking around the office every hour.
• Standing up and getting some water.
• Walk to the farthest bathroom.
• Stand while talking on the phone.

For the 2 hour time period spent watching TV or reading you can:

• Get up and move during commercials.
• Do some lunges every 30 minutes.
• Get up and walk around the room after reading a certain number of pages in a book.
• Stand and do some stretching.