Sitting, standing, and exercise

If you have a desk job you might have invested in a standing desk to counteract all those hours sitting behind a screen. Does it help? Or maybe you think “because you exercise” (three words that cause more harm than good) you can use the rest.

How much exercise do you need to do to reverse the effects of sitting all day?

First, the bad news.

We sit too much.

What researchers term “screen-based sedentary behaviours” you know, sitting, has increased. Research on screen time outside of work and school has increased from 2001-2016 from 5.5-6.4 hours a day.

It is easy to think that simply standing for some of that time will make a difference. Sorry, no it won’t unless you are classified as a “low-sitter” and “highly active”. This is defined as someone who sits less than 4 – 6 hours a day and exercises more than 420 minutes a week, or about an hour every day.

If you qualify as a highly active, low sitter, get a standing desk for more benefits. If you don’t qualify than moving is better than standing.

The research followed 150,000 men and women, aged 45 years and older, over almost a decade. They found that more, and vigorous exercise is better for reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality associated with sitting too much. They also found that walking is better than standing, is better than sitting.

The good news?

Any movement is better than none.

The more you sit, the greater your risk.

In low sitters, it takes 1 hour of vigorous exercise to replace 1 hour of sitting for marginal disease reduction risk. However, that 1 hour of exercise reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease dramatically. In the low sitters’ group, moderate levels of exercises did not lower mortality risk at all. Low sitters need vigorous activity to make a difference.

In the group of high sitters, more than 8 hours a day, substituting an hour of ANY activity – vigorous, moderate or walking – for one hour of sitting had benefits.

The researchers’ advice is to sit less and move more.

“Increase moderate-to-vigorous physical activity to recommended levels, that is, to 150 to 299 min/week, and reduce sitting from >8 h/day.”

How much physical activity offsets the bad from prolonged sitting?

I wouldn’t get rid of that standing desk, just don’t use it as an excuse to sit down when you get home from work.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla