If you sit at work, exercise at home

You probably have heard about some research reports about the unhealthy effects of sitting to much. Studies have shown that the more hours you sit each day the increase risk of dying prematurely there is. A research study showed that those that sit more then 8 hours each day (which is typical for many Americans) had a 15% increase in dying during the 3 year follow-up compared to those who sat less then 4 hours a day. The initial report with this study stated that even if you exercised in your non-sitting time, this did not defeat the deleterious effects of inactivity with sitting.

This prompted panic in some to instantly design a stand-up work station or think they were doomed either way since their job required them to sit, so they gave up exercising. Some new research out of Finland, may allow you get back in your chair and ditch the stand-up station (unless you really like it) and encourage you to get back to exercising if you have a sit down job.

The original study done just used self-reported questionnaires to determine activity levels; these often have some problems with accuracy of self reporting. The new study by the group in Finland actually put sensors on people to actually record their activity level and muscle contractions. They followed people that exercised and sat for nine (9) hours a day and also checked them on days they didn’t exercise and sat for nine (9) hours. What they found was on the days they exercised that they had significant increase in muscle activity over the day, compared to the days they did no exercise. Other studies have shown that when we are able to get muscles to work at a moderate to vigorous level we can produce significant health benefits.

So while adding exercise to your lifestyle may not change your sitting time, it will add significant health benefits. If you have a sedentary sitting job, make sure you are adding exercise to your routine to reduce the ill effects of sedentary lifestyle and do not go home and add to the sedentary habits by sitting in front of the TV the rest of the night. Also try to create some mobility to your sedentary sitting job by trying to get up and move around the office a little more. Make an extra trip or two to the copy machine or printer. The added activity might add some years to your life.