Proof exhibits that extended sitting is devastating your well being. In his guide, “Get Up!: Why Your Chair Is Killing You and What You Can Do About It,” Dr. James Levine, co-director of the Mayo Clinic and the Arizona State College Weight problems Initiative, notes there are about 10,000 publications displaying that sitting is dangerous to your well being.
Extended sitting actively promotes dozens of continual ailments, together with weight problems and Sort 2 diabetes, even in case you’re very match and train usually. It’s additionally an unbiased danger issue for untimely demise, even in case you lead an in any other case wholesome way of life. The truth is, continual sitting has a mortality charge much like smoking.1
Research taking a look at life in agriculture environments present that folks in agrarian villages sit for about three hours a day. In the meantime, the common American workplace employee can sit for 13 to fifteen hours a day, and analysis exhibits that vigorous train can not counteract the adversarial results of this extended sitting.
Abandoning Nomadic Life-style Made Man’s Bones Much less Dense
Curiously, proof of the organic results related to lack of motion go additional again than you may assume — straight into the human fossil data, as reported by NPR in 2014 (audio above).
In line with organic anthropologists on the Smithsonian Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past, the fossil document means that when early man traded their nomadic hunter-gatherer life for a extra settled one, it resulted in a much less dense bone construction. As reported by NPR:2
“The light-weight bones do not seem till about 12,000 years in the past. That is proper when people had been turning into much less bodily lively as a result of they had been leaving their nomadic hunter-gatherer life behind and settling all the way down to pursue agriculture.
A report on the work appeared … within the Proceedings of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences,3 together with a research from a unique analysis group that got here to a lot the identical conclusion.
These researchers seemed on the bones of individuals in more moderen historical past who lived in farming villages practically 1,000 years in the past and in contrast them with the bones of people that had lived close by, earlier, as foragers.
‘We see the same shift, and we attribute it to lack of mobility and extra sedentary populations,’ says Timothy Ryan, an affiliate professor of anthropology at Penn State College. ‘Undoubtedly bodily exercise and mobility is a important element in constructing robust bones.’”
Extended Sitting Takes a Toll Even when You Train
The well being results go far past reductions in bone density, nevertheless. I for one am completely satisfied that extreme sitting is a foundational contributor to most continual well being issues and untimely demise, and analysis helps this notion. For instance, as famous in a 2010 paper in Train and Sport Sciences Evaluations:4
“Even when adults meet bodily exercise tips, sitting for extended intervals can compromise metabolic well being. Tv (TV) time and goal measurement research present deleterious associations, and breaking apart sedentary time is helpful. Sitting time, TV time, and time sitting in vehicles improve untimely mortality danger …
Physiologically, it has been recommended that the lack of native contractile stimulation induced by way of sitting results in each the suppression of skeletal muscle lipoprotein lipase (LPL) exercise (which is critical for triglyceride uptake and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) ldl cholesterol manufacturing) and diminished glucose uptake …
[T]he perspective that we suggest is that an excessive amount of sitting is distinct from too little train … [I]nitial findings on the metabolic correlates of extended TV viewing time have since been confirmed by latest goal measurement research, which additionally present that breaking apart sedentary time may be useful …
Importantly, adults can meet public well being tips on bodily exercise, but when they sit for extended intervals, their metabolic well being is compromised … [T]right here is … the potential for top sedentary time and bodily exercise to coexist …
An instance could be an workplace employee who jogs or bikes to and from work, however who then sits all day at a desk and spends a number of hours watching TV within the night.”
Briefly, whereas sitting is clearly a sedentary habits, standing shouldn’t be. The authors cite a number of research5 displaying that extended sitting promotes the very illnesses that fashionable society struggles with, whereas standing protects towards them.
For instance, the extra time you spend watching TV, the larger your danger of irregular glucose metabolism and metabolic syndrome. Even in case you get no less than 150 minutes of reasonable to vigorous train every week, there’s a dose-response affiliation of TV time with waist circumference, systolic blood strain and glucose ranges — a phenomenon known as “lively sofa potato syndrome.”
Train Can’t Undo the Injury of Extended Sitting
The take-home message right here is that even day by day train can not undo the hurt finished by sitting for hours on finish. The hot button is to face up and maintain your physique in delicate movement as a lot as attainable all through every day. Solely then will common train work synergistically to enhance your well being.
Working example: A research6 revealed in 2015 discovered that, in comparison with those that exercised usually and engaged in few sedentary behaviors, those that not often exercised and spent many hours sitting had an nearly eightfold elevated danger of dying prematurely.
So, it’s the mixture of bouts of train and continual bodily movement (reminiscent of shifting posture whereas standing) that brings in regards to the best well being advantages.
One other systematic evaluate7 that checked out 47 research of sedentary habits confirmed that the time an individual spends sitting every day certainly produces detrimental results that outweigh the advantages reaped from train.
Sitting was discovered to extend your danger of demise from just about all well being issues, from Sort 2 diabetes and heart problems to most cancers and all-cause mortality. For instance, sitting for greater than eight hours a day was related to a 91% elevated danger of Sort 2 diabetes and 22% larger danger of demise from any trigger.
Different analysis8 has discovered that those that sit essentially the most have a 112% elevated relative danger of diabetes and a 147% elevated relative danger of cardiovascular occasions in comparison with those that sit the least. All-cause mortality can also be elevated by 50% on this research. To counteract the sick results of extended sitting, researchers recommend you:9
- Hold monitor of how a lot you’re sitting every day and make an effort to scale back it, little by little, every week
- Use a standing desk at work
- When watching TV, get up and/or stroll round throughout business breaks
Extreme Sitting Is Riskiest for Ladies
One other research revealed within the Mayo Clinic Proceedings,10 which examined the relationships between standing time, weight problems and metabolic syndrome — alongside and unbiased of train — discovered that, in males, elevated standing was considerably related to a decrease probability of elevated physique fats share, however not metabolic syndrome.
In ladies, nevertheless, standing half of the day was not solely associated with decrease weight problems danger, but additionally a 41% diminished danger of metabolic syndrome. Ladies who stood no less than three-quarters of the time diminished their odds of metabolic syndrome by 53%. Different research have additionally discovered that sitting, for some motive, is riskier for girls.11
Why Sitting Causes so A lot Hurt
As indicated within the paper cited above, the explanation why extended sitting impairs well being and promotes illness has to do with the molecular cascades that happen upon standing.
As additional defined within the guide, “Get Up!” inside 90 seconds of rising from sitting to standing, the muscular and mobile techniques that course of blood sugar, triglycerides, and ldl cholesterol — that are mediated by insulin — are activated.
All of those molecular results are activated just by carrying your body weight upon your legs. These mobile mechanisms are additionally liable for pushing fuels into your cells and, if finished usually, will radically lower your danger of diabetes and weight problems.
Briefly, on the molecular degree, the human physique was designed to be lively and on the transfer all day lengthy. Cease shifting for prolonged intervals of time, and it’s like telling your physique it’s time to close down and put together for demise.
Whereas we clearly have to relaxation sometimes, that relaxation is meant to interrupt up exercise, not the opposite means round. Sitting shouldn’t be purported to be a lifestyle. Sitting in a chair is a really unnatural posture that’s dangerous not solely on your again but additionally your metabolism.
Thankfully, the treatment is straightforward: Keep away from sitting and get extra motion into your life. When you have an workplace job, think about getting a stand-up desk. As a common beginning guideline, Levine recommends standing for no less than 10 minutes every hour. If you happen to’ve been sitting down for a full hour, you’ve sat too lengthy. I imagine 10 minutes is absolutely the minimal and, ideally, you’d need to restrict sitting to a few hours or much less.
Extreme Sitting Results in Exhausted Employees
Feeling exhausted by your workplace job? This too might have one thing to do with extreme sitting. As reported in a 2017 research within the Journal of Life-style Medication, which queried 447 workplace employees:12
“The respondents spent a median of 6.29 hours of an 8-hour working shift in a sitting place. The outcomes confirmed that 48.8% of the contributors didn’t really feel snug with their workstations and 73.6% felt exhausted in the course of the workday.
Moreover, 6.3% suffered from hypertension, and 11.2% of them reported hyperlipidemia. The outcomes of the NMQ [Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire] confirmed that neck (53.5%), decrease again (53.2%) and shoulder (51.6%) signs had been essentially the most prevalent downside amongst workplace employees …
Our outcomes indicated that lengthy sitting occasions had been related to exhaustion in the course of the working day, decreased job satisfaction, hypertension, and musculoskeletal dysfunction signs within the shoulders, decrease again, thighs, and knees of workplace employees.”
Average Bodily Exercise Can’t Be Overdone
In November 2023 I interviewed Dr. James O’Keefe, a heart specialist with the Mid-America Coronary heart Institute at St. Louis Hospital in Kansas Metropolis, about train dosing. He accomplished his cardiology coaching at Mayo Clinic.
He and three different coauthors revealed a meta-analysis within the March-April 2023 difficulty of Missouri Medication,13 the journal of the Missouri State Medical Affiliation, which has profound implications. I view this research as a landmark that radically modified my views on train. Three key take-homes got here out of this analysis:
1. An excessive amount of vigorous train backfires — If you happen to’re sedentary and start to train, you get a dose-dependent lower in mortality, diabetes, melancholy, hypertension, coronary illness, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, falls and extra. Nevertheless, past 75 minutes per week, you begin shedding these advantages. Past 4 hours per week, you not solely achieve nothing by way of well being advantages, you additionally radically elevate your danger of coronary heart issues.
2. You can not overdo reasonable train — Within the case of reasonable train, nevertheless — loosely outlined as exercising to the purpose the place you are barely winded however can keep on a dialog — it’s very clear that extra IS higher and can’t be overdone.
Maybe much more stunning, reasonable train additionally improves all-cause survival higher than vigorous train — about two occasions higher. Examples of reasonable bodily exercise embrace gardening, housekeeping, yoga and strolling, simply to call just a few.
3. Overdoing power coaching is worse than doing nothing in any respect — The advantages of power coaching maxes out at 40 to 60 minutes per week. Past that, you’re shedding profit, and when you get to 130 to 140 minutes of power coaching per week, you really find yourself with WORSE long-term survival than individuals who do not power prepare!
So, 20 minutes twice per week on non-consecutive days, or 40 minutes as soon as per week is the candy spot. You additionally don’t need your train routine to focus on power coaching. It must be an add-on, as you get far larger advantages merely from strolling, or another reasonable train.
What all of this implies in sensible phrases is that there’s no want to have interaction in high-intensity strenuous train past 75 minutes per week, or power coaching past 40 minutes per week. Doing so may be extremely counterproductive.
As a substitute, give attention to delicate to reasonable bodily actions, issues that maintain your physique in movement with out putting a lot pressure or stress on it. Strolling is maybe one of the best exercise you are able to do. It’s about 2,000 steps per mile, and each 1,000 steps you get on common per day reduces your mortality by 10% to fifteen%.
And, once more, whereas advantages start to plateau round 12,000 steps, they don’t lower and change into counterproductive, as what occurs while you’re doing an excessive amount of high-intensity train.
For a More healthy Life, Give Up Your Chair
The proof is overwhelming at this level that extended sitting will scale back your lifespan by selling continual illness. At naked minimal, keep away from sitting for greater than 50 minutes out of each hour. Ideally, you’d need to restrict sitting as a lot as attainable. As talked about earlier, individuals who reside in agrarian communities sit a median of simply three hours a day, which might be an admirable objective.
I additionally advocate difficult your self to stroll as a lot as attainable every day. If you need to select between going to the health club to work out and easily strolling extra, strolling would be the more sensible choice. That stated, if you wish to actually reap most advantages, add in 75 minutes of high-intensity train and 40 minutes of power coaching per week as nicely.
