How You Can Live Longer by Sitting Less
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When it comes to your health, sitting is the new smoking. A recent Australian study found that sitting for longer than four hours a day can boost your risk of everything from obesity and diabetes to vascular health and early mortality.
Sitting for longer than four hours a day can impact your health and shorten your years. Improve your health and extend your life with these five easy ways to sit less while at your desk.
Weight gain is one of the biggest side effects of sitting, even if you exercise. "Sitting disrupts the way our metabolism works," says the study's lead author, Hidde van der Ploeg, a senior research fellow at the University of Sydney. "When you're standing or walking your leg muscles are constantly working, which helps to clear blood glucose and blood fats from the bloodstream. If you're sitting, this isn't happening because the muscles aren't active."
Aside from giving up on your career, what can you do to get out of your chair? Here are five ways to sit less on the job.
1. Move more each day
Think of creative ways to stand or walk whenever possible, even if it's only for a short amount of time. "Try standing up while you talk on the phone or have a stand-up meeting," says Hidde van der Ploeg. Make your office inconvenient so you have to move to get things, not just reach for another section of your desk.
2. Stand on the job
"Standing work stations may well be the future," says van der Ploeg. Some corporations are buying adjustable necks for monitors or elevated desks, but creating a office can be as simple as placing a few phonebooks under your laptop.
3. Be flexible
Sitting may be unhealthy, but standing all day isn't necessarily the best alternative. "Standing work is associated with lower-leg discomfort and vascular changes," says Julie Côté, a McGill University kinesiology professor specializing in ergonomics and biomechanics. Côté's research focuses on the physiological responses of incorporating more standing postures in the workplace.
"The key is to have an adjustable-height workstation," says Côté. Negative adaptations start to occur in the body after staying in a stationary position for 20 to 25 minutes. Alternating desk height so you sit for 20 minutes, then stand for 20 minutes, will give workers the best of both postures. Côté works on an adjustable hospital table that's used to serve food to bedridden patients. "It's portable and supereasy to adjust."
4. Buy a hybrid
There are numerous designs of sit-stand chairs that position the body in a hybrid posture of half standing and half sitting. Côté insists it's comfortable and she's currently researching the benefits of using a sit-stand chair instead of sitting or standing on the job.
5. Walk while you work
"The truly dedicated can purchase a desk with a treadmill built in so you can walk while working," says van der Ploeg. If the thought of walking all day leaves you feeling exhausted, why not opt for one walking meeting each day? "Research has found that walking during a meeting actually increases productivity because people are more alert," says Côté.