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3 Short Walking Breaks Can Reverse Harm From 3 Hours of Sitting
An anonymous reader writes: Medical researchers have been steadily building evidence that prolonged sitting is awful for your health. One major problem is that blood can pool in the legs of a seated person, causing arteries to start losing their ability to control the rate of blood flow. A new experimental study (abstract) has discovered it's quite easy to negate these detrimental health effects: all you need to do is take a leisurely, 5-minute walk for every hour you sit. "The researchers were able to demonstrate that during a three-hour period, the flow-mediated dilation, or the expansion of the arteries as a result of increased blood flow, of the main artery in the legs was impaired by as much as 50 percent after just one hour. The study participants who walked for five minutes for each hour of sitting saw their arterial function stay the same — it did not drop throughout the three-hour period. Thosar says it is likely that the increase in muscle activity and blood flow accounts for this."
since smokers tend to smoke literally every hour and a cigarette takes 5-6 minutes to smoke.
I mean if I get up and go outside for a quick drag once an hour, that's a five minute walk right there.
You should see the smiles on the faces of slashdotters as they read this news. Seriously, hack into their computers and activate their cameras.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Cool, just saw this on the WATCH keynote - reminders showing how much you sit/walk/stand in an hour vs the recommended levels! On the topic: I wish airliners take a note of this and show a notification, buzz the arm rest every 2 sitting hours to prompt passengers to stretch/stand for a few mins.
I wonder how much of this same effect can be achieved by alternating standing with sitting. I have a sit/stand desk and switch back and forth all day long. It feels much better, I know that much.
Of course, I also take occasional walks, mostly when I need to think without distraction.
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I don't have any evidence that standing will help as much as walking, but I was thinking this is why we should have more standing desks at the office. By standing desks, I mean the ones that convert from sitting to standing easily and encourage people to change their body positions often during the work day.
It's not just a good idea, but it's probably something to keep your work population alert and productive!
What's this "leave the office" and adding 5-10 minutes bit? As soon as you stand up, your 5 minutes starts, and it only ends when you sit down again. Walking down the corridor counts. Walking down and up the stairs if your office isn't on the ground floor counts extra.
Total time required = 5 minutes.
Besides, even shorter periods will help. I believe Apples Watch gamification of fitness targets one minute of standing/walking for each hour of sitting. Which would certainly be an improvement for a lot of office workers.
Going to talk to colleagues in person rather than using phones or email every once in a while is a good way to get moving whilst still working.
v-sit. feet on ottoman, back reclined, butt low, torso-weight on back, leg weight on heels and haunches, arm weight on elbows, hand weight on the heel of the hand, proper security-guard chair, well padded, designed for long-term sitting. wrist flexed downward (by the bigger muscle), neck flexed downward (by the bigger muscle), abs flexed instead of lower back -- again, the bigger muscle works, the smaller muscle doesn't.
it's been 21 years of programming, 15 in this same exact chair. good weight, good energy, good appetite, good drive. healthy all around, no pain, no injuries (typical broken bones as a child, including a wrist), age 35.
http://www.globaltotaloffice.c...
This is why coffee is good for your health. It makes me get up and walk twice an hour. Once to get it, and once to put it back.
I learned years ago to work in CD increments. As in, put on a CD, work, when the CD is over get up, pee, get coffee, and walk around a bit to get the kinks out. Repeat as needed.
Standing in front of an elevator, standing in the elevator and then a busy escalator, for five minutes down and five minutes back, don't count as walking
Yeah, that would be a real problem if building only had elevators. Buildings are required to have stairs and in most cases they are
publicly accessible. The summary specifically mentions a "leisurely 5 minute walk" so it may be as simple as walking to the
restroom/coffee and back once an hour. If that doesn't take quite long enough then go to the coffee/restroom one floor down.
I know when I worked at HP which wasn't a too big of building just getting from one end of the building to the other took more
than 5 minutes so you could just probably just walk to the end of the building and back. In most cases people will just think you
are going to another office to talk to someone.