Sitting on Your Butt Leads to “Big Problems”

How many hours a day do you sit on your butt? Probably too many! We all know that sitting for long periods of time is not a good thing. A few months ago, I did a post that showed how sitting for long periods of time can activate enzymes that actually make your butt bigger. Now a new study shows that sitting on your duff too long can contribute to your demise on other ways.  Check out this article from the LA Times:

Sitting may be more hazardous than you think
By now everyone knows they should do 30 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous exercise a day to stay healthy. But are people who exercise as much as an hour or more getting enough movement throughout the day?

 Maybe not, according to a new study that took an interesting angle on sedentary behavior. Researchers wondered if a connection existed between sitting for long periods of time and mortality, and discovered there was — even for people who engaged in leisure-time activity. That’s right, sitting on your duff might not only be bad for your health, it could contribute to your demise.

The study followed 17,013 Canadians ages 18 to 90 for an average of 12 years, men and women who were part of the 1981 Canada Fitness Survey. They were asked to rate how long each day they spent sitting, from “almost none of the time” to “almost all of the time.”

Among causes of death during the study period, 759 were from cardiovascular disease, 547 from cancer, and 526 from other causes, such as respiratory disease, injuries and violence, and digestive system disorders. Those who died tended to have a higher body mass index and were less physically active. More importantly, increased sitting time was linked with death rates from all causes except cancer.

That association was seen among those who did and did not exercise, as well as all BMI levels. That’s right — even people who exercised but remained sedentary for much of the day had a higher mortality risk.

“This is an important observation because it suggests that high amounts of sitting cannot be compensated for with occasional leisure time physical activity even if the amount exceeds the current minimum physical activity recommendations,” wrote researchers from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., and the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute in Ottawa. The study appears in the May issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

The study gives us a new appreciation for jobs such as nursing, waiting tables and hair styling, although there are sore feet and aching backs to think about. And it lends some credence to what Dr. James Levine, an endocrinologist with the Mayo Clinic, has been touting for years — integrating a treadmill into a work space to incorporate more movement into the day. He’ll probably live forever.
— Jeannine Stein

 Tips to spend less time sitting at work and get “off your butt”
1. If you don’t have a private office, do discreet squats so as to not call to much attention to yourself. (pic above is of woman doing discreet squats)

2. Don’t order lunch in – get up and go get it!

3. Better yet, take a brisk walk on your lunch hour. Even a 15 minute walk will help to get things moving.

4. Every hour or so, do a few flights of the stairs (pic is of city girl doing stairs carrying briefcase – under the pretense of doing work)

5. Instead of sending emails, walk to co-workers desk to verbally deliver messages.

6. Drink a lot of water so you will have to make numerous trips to ladies room. You can kill 2 birds with one stone (more fluid and more movement!)

6. Talk on the phone standing up. You can do “buttock squeezes” very discreetly.

7. If you have a private office, do real squats every 15 minutes or so (pic is of city girl doing real squats)

8. Get a stand for your computer. I often do work at home. After sitting all day at work, at night I put my computer on a stand and actually stand while I am working. (pic is of the computer stand I purchased 3 years ago when I had a hamsting injury that caused sitting to be painful!)