Sitting – The New Smoking?

The data on the health risks of sitting is unequivocal and indicting. It could be argued that sitting is the new smoking.

smoking

In a study published in May of 2010 in “Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise”, researchers found that men who spent more than 23 hours a week watching TV and sitting in their cars had a 64 percent greater chance of dying from heart disease than those who sat for 11 hours a week or less. That statistic is alarming, but it’s not particularly surprising. What was unexpected, however, was that the risks were relatively unrelated to how much the subjects exercised. Many of the subjects worked out regularly, but then they sat for hours and, despite the intermittent exercise, their risk of heart disease soared. Their workouts did not counteract the ill effects of sitting. Adding a positive was not enough to counteract a negative.
sitting Recently, the BBC and University of Chester studied the effects of standing at our workplace in an attempt to quantify the potential health benefit. The study found that standing caused the volunteers to have a much higher heart rate (around 10 beats per minute higher), which adds up to burning about 50 calories more per hour versus sitting. Over a year, that adds up to about 30,000 more calories or 8 pounds of fat. Says University of Chester’s Dr John Buckley, “If you want to put that into activity levels, then that would be the equivalent of running about 10 marathons a year. Just by standing up three or four hours in your day at work.”

Despite an earnest and well-intentioned emphasis on health and fitness, our society may be guilty of compartmentalizing its efforts to a time slot in our day planner. If you are serious about committing to healthier lifestyles, it shouldn’t be something that you are just cramming into your lunch break. Look at how we can change your environment to bring yourself closer to your goals. You need to looks at removing negative behavior, not just adding positive.

Adam Skrove, MPT, OCS

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Andrew Vertson

Andrew received his Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science from California State University, Fresno in 1991. He then earned his Master’s degree of Physical Therapy in 1996 and his Doctorate degree of Physical Therapy in 2002 from Loma Linda University. In 1996 he also earned his Certification as an Athletic Trainer. He has also completed extensive post-graduate course work in orthopedic manual therapy through Kaiser-West Los Angeles and the Ola Grimsby Institute.

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