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Sitting for long periods is bad for health even if you exercise regularly.
hermitwin
Veteran
Sitting for long periods is bad for health even if you exercise regularly.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24532996
Do you spend a lot of time watching TV and using the computer?
Doctors have found that people who sit for long periods, are more likely to develop health problems even if you exercise
regularly. The solution, stand up.
Even if you exercise on a regular basis that may not be enough.
There is mounting evidence that exercise will not undo the damage done by prolonged sitting. Our technology has made us the most sedentary humans in history.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24532996
Studies have claimed major health benefits for standing for much of the day as opposed to sitting. The difference is
marked, explains Michael Mosley.
Guess how many hours a day you spend sitting? Fewer than eight? More than 10? A recent survey found that many of us spend up to 12 hours a day sitting on our bottoms looking at computers or watching television. If you throw in the seven hours we spend sleeping then that adds up to a remarkable 19 hours a day being sedentary.
Sitting down as much as this is clearly bad for us and some studies suggest that those who sit all day live around two
years less than those who are more active. Most of us are guilty of excess sitting. We sit at work, in the car and at
home, moving only to shift from one seat to another.
Even if you exercise on a regular basis that may not be enough. There is mounting evidence that exercise will not undo the damage done by prolonged sitting. Our technology has made us the most sedentary humans in history.
The team collaborated with the University of Chester to do an unusual experiment, the first of its kind in the UK, looking at the effects of standing versus sitting in a small group of volunteers
So why is sitting so damaging? One thing it does is change the way our bodies deal with sugar. When you eat, your body breaks down the food into glucose, which is then transported in the blood to other cells. Glucose is an essential fuel but persistently high levels increase your risk of diabetes and heart disease. Your pancreas produces the hormone insulin to help get your glucose levels back down to normal, but how efficiently your body does that is affected by how physically active you are.
We wanted to see what would happen if we took a group of people who normally spend their day sitting in an office and ask them to spend a few hours a day on their feet instead.
Standing while you are working may seem rather odd, but it is a practice with a long tradition. Winston Churchill wrote while working at a special standing desk, as did Ernest Hemingway and Benjamin Franklin.
So with Dr John Buckley and a team of researchers from the University of Chester we conducted a simple experiment. We
asked 10 people who work at an estate agents to stand for at least three hours a day for a week.
Our lucky volunteers had mixed feelings about how they would get on.
"It'll be different, but looking forward to it, yes…"
"I think my feet might hurt - I'll have to wear sensible
shoes…"
"The small of my back, it's going to hurt…"
"I'm worried that I'm not going to be able to stand up for all
that time…[Laughs nervously]"
We asked all the volunteers to wear an accelerometer - a movement monitor - to record just how much moving about they were doing. They also wore heart rate monitors and had glucose monitors that measured their blood sugar levels constantly, day and night.
The equivalent of 10 marathons a year?
The evidence that standing up is good for you goes back to at least the 1950s when a study was done comparing bus conductors (who stand) with bus drivers (who don't). This study, published in the Lancet, showed that the bus conductors had around half the risk of developing heart disease of the bus drivers.
Since then prolonged sitting has not only been linked to problems with blood glucose control, but also a sharp reduction
in the activity of an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase, which breaks down blood fats and makes them available as a fuel to
the muscles. This reduction in enzyme activity leads to raised levels of triglycerides and fats in the blood, increasing the
risk of heart disease.
We had good reason to believe that standing would make a difference to our volunteers, but we were also a little anxious
as to how they would get on. This was the first time an experiment like this had been conducted in the UK. Would our
volunteers stick to it?
They did. One woman with arthritis even found that standing actually improved her symptoms.
The Chester researchers took measurements on days when the volunteers stood, and when they sat around. When they looked at the data there were some striking differences. As we had hoped, blood glucose levels fell back to normal levels after a meal far more quickly on the days when the volunteers stood than when they sat.
There was also evidence, from the heart rate monitors that they were wearing, that by standing they were burning more calories.
"If we look at the heart rates," John Buckley explains, "we can see they are quite a lot higher actually - on average around 10 beats per minute higher and that makes a difference of about 0.7 of a calorie per minute."
Now that doesn't sound like much, but it adds up to about 50 calories an hour. If you stand for three hours a day for five days that's around 750 calories burnt. Over the course of a year it would add up to about 30,000 extra calories, or around
8lb of fat.
"If you want to put that into activity levels," Dr Buckley says, "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."
Dr Buckley thinks that although going out and doing exercise offers many proven benefits, our bodies also need the constant, almost imperceptible increase in muscle activity that standing provides. Simple movement helps us to keep our all-important blood sugar under control.
We can't all stand up at work but the researchers believe that even small adjustments, like standing while talking on the
phone, going over to talk to a colleague rather than sending an email, or simply taking the stairs, will help.
I have, of course, written this article while standing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24532996
Do you spend a lot of time watching TV and using the computer?
Doctors have found that people who sit for long periods, are more likely to develop health problems even if you exercise
regularly. The solution, stand up.
Even if you exercise on a regular basis that may not be enough.
There is mounting evidence that exercise will not undo the damage done by prolonged sitting. Our technology has made us the most sedentary humans in history.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24532996
Studies have claimed major health benefits for standing for much of the day as opposed to sitting. The difference is
marked, explains Michael Mosley.
Guess how many hours a day you spend sitting? Fewer than eight? More than 10? A recent survey found that many of us spend up to 12 hours a day sitting on our bottoms looking at computers or watching television. If you throw in the seven hours we spend sleeping then that adds up to a remarkable 19 hours a day being sedentary.
Sitting down as much as this is clearly bad for us and some studies suggest that those who sit all day live around two
years less than those who are more active. Most of us are guilty of excess sitting. We sit at work, in the car and at
home, moving only to shift from one seat to another.
Even if you exercise on a regular basis that may not be enough. There is mounting evidence that exercise will not undo the damage done by prolonged sitting. Our technology has made us the most sedentary humans in history.
The team collaborated with the University of Chester to do an unusual experiment, the first of its kind in the UK, looking at the effects of standing versus sitting in a small group of volunteers
So why is sitting so damaging? One thing it does is change the way our bodies deal with sugar. When you eat, your body breaks down the food into glucose, which is then transported in the blood to other cells. Glucose is an essential fuel but persistently high levels increase your risk of diabetes and heart disease. Your pancreas produces the hormone insulin to help get your glucose levels back down to normal, but how efficiently your body does that is affected by how physically active you are.
We wanted to see what would happen if we took a group of people who normally spend their day sitting in an office and ask them to spend a few hours a day on their feet instead.
Standing while you are working may seem rather odd, but it is a practice with a long tradition. Winston Churchill wrote while working at a special standing desk, as did Ernest Hemingway and Benjamin Franklin.
So with Dr John Buckley and a team of researchers from the University of Chester we conducted a simple experiment. We
asked 10 people who work at an estate agents to stand for at least three hours a day for a week.
Our lucky volunteers had mixed feelings about how they would get on.
"It'll be different, but looking forward to it, yes…"
"I think my feet might hurt - I'll have to wear sensible
shoes…"
"The small of my back, it's going to hurt…"
"I'm worried that I'm not going to be able to stand up for all
that time…[Laughs nervously]"
We asked all the volunteers to wear an accelerometer - a movement monitor - to record just how much moving about they were doing. They also wore heart rate monitors and had glucose monitors that measured their blood sugar levels constantly, day and night.
The equivalent of 10 marathons a year?
The evidence that standing up is good for you goes back to at least the 1950s when a study was done comparing bus conductors (who stand) with bus drivers (who don't). This study, published in the Lancet, showed that the bus conductors had around half the risk of developing heart disease of the bus drivers.
Since then prolonged sitting has not only been linked to problems with blood glucose control, but also a sharp reduction
in the activity of an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase, which breaks down blood fats and makes them available as a fuel to
the muscles. This reduction in enzyme activity leads to raised levels of triglycerides and fats in the blood, increasing the
risk of heart disease.
We had good reason to believe that standing would make a difference to our volunteers, but we were also a little anxious
as to how they would get on. This was the first time an experiment like this had been conducted in the UK. Would our
volunteers stick to it?
They did. One woman with arthritis even found that standing actually improved her symptoms.
The Chester researchers took measurements on days when the volunteers stood, and when they sat around. When they looked at the data there were some striking differences. As we had hoped, blood glucose levels fell back to normal levels after a meal far more quickly on the days when the volunteers stood than when they sat.
There was also evidence, from the heart rate monitors that they were wearing, that by standing they were burning more calories.
"If we look at the heart rates," John Buckley explains, "we can see they are quite a lot higher actually - on average around 10 beats per minute higher and that makes a difference of about 0.7 of a calorie per minute."
Now that doesn't sound like much, but it adds up to about 50 calories an hour. If you stand for three hours a day for five days that's around 750 calories burnt. Over the course of a year it would add up to about 30,000 extra calories, or around
8lb of fat.
"If you want to put that into activity levels," Dr Buckley says, "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."
Dr Buckley thinks that although going out and doing exercise offers many proven benefits, our bodies also need the constant, almost imperceptible increase in muscle activity that standing provides. Simple movement helps us to keep our all-important blood sugar under control.
We can't all stand up at work but the researchers believe that even small adjustments, like standing while talking on the
phone, going over to talk to a colleague rather than sending an email, or simply taking the stairs, will help.
I have, of course, written this article while standing.
1
Comments
now i work on a computer daily while sitting for nearly 10 hours a day and at least 6 days a week. also i do not do any physical exercises in the morning. so it seems like my future physical condition is going to be very bad
One question here: what about the health condition of those people, who do long sitting meditations - as that is also sitting? my guess for monks it may not affect much because they may eat less food, but for lay people(who eat sufficient food) does long sitting meditation going to affect their health? any ideas, please. thanks in advance.
since i have a wife and a daughter, these house activities are done by my wife, since she is a house-wife and if i try to do some household activities, she becomes annoyed at me that why i did those things, instead of asking her to do it.
the only activity which i do is going from home to office, which involve walking something like 500m from my rented flat to main road to get a cab to office and then on the way back from office to home, again 500m walk from main road to my rented flat. i do not know if it is exactly 500m or even much lesser than it, but i guess it should be around 500m, since it takes me nearly 7 to 8 min to walk this distance.
I am the house husband to an extent, my partner does pitch in but she has a pretty demanding job 6 days a week away from the house, so I am going to try and put energy into the house more than browsing the net when I have free time. As is stands I spend about 30 minutes stretching and going through WuShu moves, then do a mash of 30 mins cardio and light weight lifting.
Whether you sit or move, you will develop health problems.
And
if you watch TV, use those ever increasing advertisement breaks to do something usefully physical for your body (and considering the advertising content..your mind)
If you sit in front of a computer screen, set a 30 min timer to remind yourself to stretch and take a 5 minute movement break. Occasionally switching out your computer chair for a paladies ball works for many.
&
Everybody I've ever met who sits a lot, interspaces the practice with walking meditation.
Thinking of more things to do inside the house increases habits built up due your social anxiety, rather than creating new habits that will decrease your social anxiety.
And, BTW, that's a suggestion from a psychologist, not something I dreamed up myself.
Probably we'd all do well to practice walking meditation.
My point is that there's more to exercising than purely keeping health problems at bay. And whatever gets worse with age, improves with exercise.
At the end of the day, he changes, and runs the eight miles home. He says the home-run de-stresses him.
That's sixteen miles a day he runs back 'n' forth from work; it also saves him travel costs including a toll bridge fee.
Of course, I'm not saying you could do this from scratch, but a good way to work towards it is by having a look at a couch-to-5k training program, which starts you off with some gentle jogging and walking.
http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/c25K/Pages/couch-to-5k.aspx
But yea as much as a healthy mind is indeed a positive thing to have, we all need balance in life which in my opinion means we should not go over the top and exercise until our muscles have ripped and we have enlarged heart muscles, but neither should we sit and gradually turn into a puddle of mush.
Walk up and down all night
Get up, Stand up
walkin for insight.
Im fairly convinced seeing examples like bhante g, who has had a consistant walking schedule daily throughout his life, that walking a mile or two a day is good for you. He is 85 and when you walk with him you can get out of breath keeping up lol.
Right now as a lay person of 35 i do hardcore exercise like crossfit and lots of endurance events. When/if i become a monastic i plan on keeping a regular schedule of walking, yoga, and basic bodyweight exercises. Upkeep of a forest monastery requires a lot of physical work, so i dont think ill be out of shape.
Jayantha
Have you asked yourself where the meditative practice of the observation of the decay of a human body fits with your intended monkly fitness program?
You might be surprised at how much comes under the umbrella of renunciation for most monks.
As a lay person i freely admit ego attachment to much of the exercise events i do. I put myself through 12 hours of hell because ive grown attached to it, i like it, the feelings of pride and accomplishment and trying to find how far this body(that use to be 373lbs) can go.
As a monastic i will be freely giving up much of that(although i am attached to the idea of tudhong) as part of lessening the ego. However considering id like to have greater chances of a long and healthy life to get more dhamma practice in, i do feel an appropriate amount of exercise is important, and the yoga helps with sitting, posture, and body health.
Yes the body is bound for sickness, disease, death, and rotting. However I view this body as a machine to take me to the other end of the stream, so I want it to be in well working order.
And I can't find the link any more-- it was in the quirkies section of the news many years back about a Chinese Buddhist monastery where I guess the Bodhisattva vows and the vinaya had a dubious interpretation of .... calling for watching TV all day as a form of meditation. I guessing that so many people having learned from anti-religious communist teachings at school that monks are lazy parasites, that when they had a chance to be a monk, they fulfilled the stereotype they knew. (Sorry my heart isn't big enough to condone endless TV watching as a legitimate form of practice)
I edited the first post to delete certain superfluous references to British TV channels (mostly inaccessible to our dear friends across the pond) and to rid the very long post of needless spacing.
Please, when cutting and pasting, be sure to edit the text accordingly to make it easier on the eye and tempting to read.
Much of the content was needlessly pasted.
Good article though.
And as 98% of my working day involves standing and a lot of walking, I count myself blessed to be in rude health!