Proof exhibits that extended sitting is devastating your well being. In his e-book, “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 power illnesses, together with weight problems and Sort 2 diabetes, even if you happen to’re very match and train commonly. It’s additionally an impartial threat issue for untimely demise, even if you happen to lead an in any other case wholesome way of life. The truth is, power sitting has a mortality price just like smoking.1
Research 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’t 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 would possibly suppose — straight into the human fossil information, 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 existence 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 special analysis group that got here to a lot the identical conclusion.
These researchers regarded on the bones of individuals in newer historical past who lived in farming villages almost 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 essential part in constructing robust bones.’”
Extended Sitting Takes a Toll Even when You Train
The well being results go far past reductions in bone density, nonetheless. I for one am completely satisfied that extreme sitting is a foundational contributor to most power 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 pointers, 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 cars improve untimely mortality threat …
Physiologically, it has been advised that the lack of native contractile stimulation induced via 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 current goal measurement research, which additionally present that breaking apart sedentary time could be helpful …
Importantly, adults can meet public well being pointers 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.”
In brief, whereas sitting is clearly a sedentary habits, standing is just not. The authors cite a number of research5 displaying that extended sitting promotes the very illnesses that trendy society struggles with, whereas standing protects in opposition to them.
For instance, the extra time you spend watching TV, the larger your threat of irregular glucose metabolism and metabolic syndrome. Even if you happen to get a minimum of 150 minutes of reasonable to vigorous train every week, there’s a dose-response affiliation of TV time with waist circumference, systolic blood stress and glucose ranges — a phenomenon known as “lively sofa potato syndrome.”
Train Can not Undo the Injury of Extended Sitting
The take-home message right here is that even each day train can’t undo the hurt performed by sitting for hours on finish. The hot button is to face up and hold your physique in delicate movement as a lot as potential all through every day. Solely then will common train work synergistically to enhance your well being.
Living proof: A research6 printed in 2015 discovered that, in comparison with those that exercised typically and engaged in few sedentary behaviors, those that hardly ever exercised and spent many hours sitting had an virtually eightfold elevated threat of dying prematurely.
So, it’s the mix of bouts of train and power bodily movement (akin to shifting posture whereas standing) that brings concerning the best well being advantages.
One other systematic overview7 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 threat 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 threat of Sort 2 diabetes and 22% increased threat of demise from any trigger.
Different analysis8 has discovered that those that sit essentially the most have a 112% elevated relative threat of diabetes and a 147% elevated relative threat 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 unwell results of extended sitting, researchers counsel you:9
- Hold observe 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, arise and/or stroll round throughout business breaks
Extreme Sitting Is Riskiest for Ladies
One other research printed within the Mayo Clinic Proceedings,10 which examined the relationships between standing time, weight problems and metabolic syndrome — alongside and impartial 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, nonetheless, standing half of the day was not solely associated with decrease weight problems threat, but in addition a 41% diminished threat of metabolic syndrome. Ladies who stood a minimum of three-quarters of the time diminished their odds of metabolic syndrome by 53%. Different research have additionally discovered that sitting, for some purpose, is riskier for ladies.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 e-book, “Get Up!” inside 90 seconds of rising from sitting to standing, the muscular and mobile methods 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 accountable for pushing fuels into your cells and, if performed commonly, will radically lower your threat of diabetes and weight problems.
In brief, on the molecular stage, 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 must relaxation now and again, that relaxation is meant to interrupt up exercise, not the opposite approach round. Sitting is just not alleged to be a lifestyle. Sitting in a chair is a really unnatural posture that’s dangerous not solely to your again but in addition your metabolism.
Thankfully, the treatment is straightforward: Keep away from sitting and get extra motion into your life. When you have an workplace job, contemplate getting a stand-up desk. As a basic beginning guideline, Levine recommends standing for a minimum of 10 minutes every hour. In the event you’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 wish to restrict sitting to 3 hours or much less.
Extreme Sitting Results in Exhausted Employees
Feeling exhausted by your workplace job? This too could have one thing to do with extreme sitting. As reported in a 2017 research within the Journal of Life-style Drugs, which queried 447 workplace staff:12
“The respondents spent a mean of 6.29 hours of an 8-hour working shift in a sitting place. The outcomes confirmed that 48.8% of the individuals didn’t really feel comfy with their workstations and 73.6% felt exhausted throughout 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 staff …
Our outcomes indicated that lengthy sitting instances had been related to exhaustion throughout the working day, decreased job satisfaction, hypertension, and musculoskeletal dysfunction signs within the shoulders, decrease again, thighs, and knees of workplace staff.”
Reasonable Bodily Exercise Can not 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 printed a meta-analysis within the March-April 2023 situation of Missouri Drugs,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 — In the event you’re sedentary and start to train, you get a dose-dependent lower in mortality, diabetes, melancholy, hypertension, coronary illness, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, falls and extra. Nonetheless, past 75 minutes per week, you begin dropping these advantages. Past 4 hours every week, you not solely achieve nothing when it comes to well being advantages, you additionally radically elevate your threat of coronary heart issues.
2. You can’t overdo reasonable train — Within the case of reasonable train, nonetheless — loosely outlined as exercising to the purpose the place you are barely winded however can stick with it 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 instances higher. Examples of reasonable bodily exercise embody gardening, home tasks, yoga and strolling, simply to call a number of.
3. Overdoing energy coaching is worse than doing nothing in any respect — The advantages of energy coaching maxes out at 40 to 60 minutes every week. Past that, you’re dropping profit, and when you get to 130 to 140 minutes of energy coaching per week, you truly find yourself with WORSE long-term survival than individuals who do not energy prepare!
So, 20 minutes twice every week on non-consecutive days, or 40 minutes as soon as every week is the candy spot. You additionally don’t need your train routine to focus on energy coaching. It needs to 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 energy coaching past 40 minutes every week. Doing so could be extremely counterproductive.
As a substitute, give attention to delicate to reasonable bodily actions, issues that hold your physique in movement with out inserting a lot pressure or stress on it. Strolling is maybe the very 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 turn out to be 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 power illness. At naked minimal, keep away from sitting for greater than 50 minutes out of each hour. Ideally, you’d wish to restrict sitting as a lot as potential. As talked about earlier, individuals who stay in agrarian communities sit a mean of simply three hours a day, which might be an admirable objective.
I additionally advocate difficult your self to stroll as a lot as potential every day. If it’s important to select between going to the gymnasium to work out and easily strolling extra, strolling could be the more sensible choice. That mentioned, if you wish to actually reap most advantages, add in 75 minutes of high-intensity train and 40 minutes of energy coaching per week as properly.
