Sit Down too Much?

Posted on January 19, 2011

I just read “More Breaks from Sitting Are Good for Waistlines and Hearts” over at ScienceDaily. Interesting article on a study that points out that too much sitting increases your risk of developing unhealthy conditions, even if you do participate in regular moderate-intensity exercise.

Here are some thoughts from one of the researchers:

The benefits of regular participation in moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise are well accepted scientifically and by the general public. However, the potential adverse health impact of prolonged sitting (which is something that we do on average for more than half of our day), is only just being realised.

Our research showed that even small changes, which could be as little as standing up for one minute, might help to lower this health risk. It is likely that regular breaks in prolonged sitting time could be readily incorporated into the working environment without any detrimental impact on productivity, although this still needs to be determined by further research.

– Dr. Genevieve Healy, a research fellow at the School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Australia

Take home message: Too much sitting can be detrimental to your health, even if you do exercise. Solution? Get up and walk around every so often while you work. Moving around is always a good habit to get into.