We all know the dangers of sitting when it comes to our health and fitness, but if you thought that 30 minutes in the gym is enough to counter 8+ hours of having your ass glued to your chair, you thought wrong. That’s according to the American Heart Association (AHA) in a science advisory report recently published in their journal Circulation.
“Regardless of how much physical activity someone gets, prolonged sedentary time could negatively impact the health of your heart and blood vessels,” said Deborah Rohm Young, Ph.D., director of behavioral research at Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Pasadena and chair of the AHA panel that authored the report. There are other problems with excessive inertia too, including an increased risk of developing diabetes, impaired insulin sensitivity, and an overall higher risk of death from any cause.
We are definitely spending more time than ever slumped in chairs and flaked out on sofas, and that probably only gets worse with age, it seems. According to the report: “It is estimated that adults spend 6 to 8 hours per day in sedentary behavior, including sitting, TV viewing, screen time, and computer use. The prevalence is greater for older adults.”
Evidence linking sedentary behavior and health problems is still inconclusive, but Young says this is not reason enough to ignore the dangers of sitting. “There are many important factors we don’t understand about sedentary time yet,” she says. “The types of studies available identify trends but don’t prove cause and effect. We don’t have information about how much sedentary behavior is bad for health — the best advice at this time is to ‘sit less and move more.'”
With that advice in mind, the report looks at possible interventions and offers a couple of promising avenues to explore for reducing sedentary behaviour. It cites “activity-permissive” workstations that allow users to stand, walk or pedal while they work as particularly effective. In other words, you can reduce the deleterious effects of sitting by investing in a standing workstation or treadmill desk.
Technology also gets a mention, with the authors noting that smartphone apps that interrupt sedentary time can be effective, and are already available. They cite a study which showed that smartphone owners spent significantly less time sitting down when they used an app to remind them to get up and move around. Many fitness bands and smartwatches offer similar features.
Aside from modifying your workspace and using an app, there are plenty of ways to reduce your sedentary time and avoid the dangers of sitting for too long. For example, you can pace, exercise, stretch or just stand up every once in awhile while watching TV. Get off the bus or train a stop early, then walk the rest of the way to work. And when on your cellphone, walk and talk rather than sitting down. If you need to take notes or are tied to a landline, you can still get up and stand.
Q: Does your lifestyle involve sitting down for long periods? Let us know how you deal with that in the comments below.
