Time to take a break from taking a seat
What type of movement is enough to counter effects of prolonged sitting?
You’ve probably heard the warnings about the detrimental effects of too much sitting. But for many of us, changes in how we function in the workplace and at home make it difficult to get rid of our sitting habit.
To make matters worse, regular lunch-hour or evening workouts don’t do much to counteract all that time spent in a chair. A study reported that individuals who exercised seven hours a week and watched television seven hours a day had twice the risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those who exercised the same number of hours per week but watched only one hour of television a day.
Faced with what’s clearly the latest lifestyle risk factor for exercisers and non-exercisers alike, the next step for researchers is trying to pinpoint exactly what it is about sitting that has such a negative impact on health.
A group of researchers from the U.K. decided to contribute to the growing bank of knowledge on chronic sitting by reviewing much of the research related to how it affects cardiovascular health and cardiovascular risk factors.
“We aim to synthesize, for the first time, scientific work that examines the relationship between sedentary behaviour and development of cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular risk factors and present an overview
of studies that explore the mechanisms that underlie this relationship,” they said.
We already know that a sedentary lifestyle is associated with obesity, a higher waist circumference and high cholesterol, all risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Yet many of these physiological markers can also be related to a lack of exercise, which makes it difficult to single out the risk factors that result from sitting alone.
But further investigation into prolonged bouts of inactivity has provided crucial information that is unique to those who sit throughout the workday.
The U.K. researchers uncovered studies showing that as little as three uninterrupted hours of sitting can cause blood pressure to rise, which experts suggest is related to a change in vascular structure and function that decreases blood flow to the lower legs and increases calf circumference.
After seven days of chronic sitting, resistance to insulin also rises, which marks the type of metabolic changes associated with cardiovascular disease. Combined, it’s clear that not only does sitting have a unique influence on heart health, it doesn’t take long for its effects to have an impact. A simple solution is to get out from behind our desks more often.
But how often and what type of movement is enough to counter the physiological changes related to prolonged sitting?
Start by incorporating movement breaks into your workday. A two-minute walk every 20 minutes proved effective in decreasing the spike in blood pressure that resulted from successive hours of sitting. And for those who already have high blood pressure, this simple twominute movement break proved even more effective.
If that doesn’t suit your schedule, a five-minute walking break performed on the hour also helped deflect the health issues related to long periods of uninterrupted sitting.
Then there are the changes you can make to your work environment and habits. Standing desks can help keep the blood flowing and encourage more natural movement.
If a change in office furniture isn’t in your future, try standing up every time you pick up the phone or sending one less email, opting to deliver the message in person. Or set a goal to climb 50 stairs and walk down 10 hallways a day.
At home, get up and move during commercial breaks, even if only to shake your legs. Just take care that you don’t blaze a trail to the fridge every time you get up, or you’ll have a whole new set of problems.