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Long Periods of Sitting Is Harmful for Your Health – Even If You Work Out
March 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Posted by: Kathleen Daniel
What fresh hell is this? It seems that the ante has been upped for couch potatoes, people who drive or who sit in front of computers for a living. Specialists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden are finding that prolonged periods of sitting are more harmful than what we’ve heretofore thought of as simply a ‘sedentary lifestyle.’ Their new model of “inactivity physiology” suggests that sitting, or non-muscular activity is in a class by itself – it’s not the same as simply ‘not exercising’. Actually, being sedentary – a normal day at home without exercise, carrying groceries, washing dishes, pulling weeds – is looking pretty good by comparison. From the New York Times: It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting — in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home — you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death. In other words, irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you.
Indeed, if you consider only healthy people who exercise regularly, those who sit the most during the rest of the day have larger waists and worse profiles of blood pressure and blood sugar than those who sit less. Among people who sit in front of the television for more than three hours each day, those who exercise are as fat as those who don’t: sitting a lot appears to offset some of the benefits of jogging a lot.”
P.S. Since I sit a LOT more than I’d like to admit I use a balance ball chair when I’m at my keyboard. It does keep my spine straighter and more flexible so I feel more energized and light on my feet vs glued to my chair. Just rolling around on it while I write – like I am now – gets my blood and muscles moving, and I’m much less tired at the end of the day.
While there are no studies as far as I know on this particular activity yet – research does indicate that using balance balls regularly does increase core stability – a key element in strengthening the spine and reducing lower back pain. So this might be a good time to add these six simple stability building exercises to your regimen between bouts of rolling around at your desk or in front of the TV. (It’s actually fun!)
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