You are probably sitting down for too long

The whole interesting part of the article to me is the (mostly unexamined) claim that sitting is still a problem in the exercising population. Everything afterwards is hypothetical discussion of mechanisms without looking at outcomes (at least for exercise vs no-exercise groups).

> Since 2010, researchers have been keen to point out that sedentary behaviour is distinct from a lack of physical activity. You can get sufficient exercise per day, and still sit for too long.

They could have delved into this a little more! The link is to a 2021 review (not 2010). Did they somehow RCT people into exercise vs no-exercise groups, or is this observational? Is it really just that our "active" guidelines are too low (30 minutes a day) and sort of assume a baseline active job during the other hours? (E.g., maybe guidelines should call for 2-3 hours of activity a day, some of which can be covered by non-sedentary jobs.)

Anyway, just trying to figure out what to take away from this as an office worker who gets 1.5-2 hours of exercise a day.

I went from a pretty physically active job in facilities management to an IT role working from home about 3 years ago and have had a slew of physical issues that I think are related to sitting down 10+ hours a day such as sciatica. I real a book called "Deskbound: Standing Up to a Sitting World" by Dr. Kelly Starrett and it's pretty damning. Similar to the old comparison that smoking a cigarette takes ~7 minutes off of your life, they claim that every hour you sit down takes ~11 minutes off of your life.

Regardless of everything I have read about sitting down being terrible for you, I just can't seem to get into a routine of standing up. Once I sit down for an engagement / lunch / etc., I just simply don't make it back up that day. I have become terribly lazy, I guess.

apple watch and a walking pad with standing desk really changed my life. i tried all three individually but only since i have all three combined do i really naturally embed walking in my work life. the watch reminds every hour in which i did not get up, tracks progress and gives feeling of reward and accomplishments, the walking pad allows standing without having to change legs and hurting feet and walking on a standing desk allows to continue entertainment or most work tasks. I now dont spend any day without 2h / 8km walking. There is just something that feels different in my energy and sense of happiness when moving throughout a day.

Of note: the issue is not so much sitting in particular, it's being sedentary. Standing for 5 hrs at a time is really not much better than sitting for that same duration, since humans are (understandably) well-adapted to stand upright with minimal metabolic cost. Sitting is bad because it displaces physical activity, not because there is something uniquely bad about being in a chair. Take a walk break.

Don't wave the false flag of "WFH" for this one. When I am home I can easily walk to the coffee pot, wander around, pace, etc. I can also take 10 mins to walk the dog or put away laundry etc. This quick break is harder at work for me. In either environment, I am on Teams calls regardless.

What about sitting without chairs? Like squatting, or seiza, or legs crossed? Those are sort of active(-ish) forms of sitting.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that countless hours-per-day held in a static posture is right there with repetitive motion in terms of health consequences. Both are a kind of bizarre thing to do, and it's hard to imagine that human evolution had much opportunity to optimize for any particular sustained posture or deeply repetitive motion when much broader variety seems to be the norm throughout most of culture and history.

You wouldn't expect an hour of doing something else, however vigorous or dynamic, to really overcome the consequences of such a contrived routine.

If you want care about this stuff (it's fair not to; you'll still live as long as your peers if you don't), you do just need to figure out how to make frequent, non-repetitive movement part of your day.

On a tangential topic, is there another way of sitting, like sitting up? Why do English require qualifying with "down" so frequently?

A standing desk has helped a lot for me. I also recently got a treadmill desk - would recommend if walking while taking calls is not distracting for you.

Nope. Sitting down is a great way for you to rest and focus.

The real problem is that when you regularly put your body into any specific position for a long time, you really need to stretch the opposite position to make sure your muscles stay flexible instead of locking up.

I spend a lot of time sitting at work and home. So I make sure I always inverse the stiffing muscles by stretching the inverse position. Just stretching 5 min a day (and going for a 30+ minute walk) fixed the problems I previously had.