Advertisement
Health

Sitting down is slowly killing you

I knew that sitting is bad, but I figured I got a “buy” on this because I’m not overweight and I exercise a whole lot. It turns out I was wrong, because even for the active lots of sitting is terrible for you.

Sitting down is slowly killing you Getty Images

I knew that sitting is bad, but I figured I got a “buy” on this because I’m not overweight and I exercise a whole lot. It turns out I was wrong, because even for the active lots of sitting is terrible for you.

This post over at Obesity Panacea is both scary and enlightening, and I advise you to check it out. It turns out that even active people could have their health suffer from prolonged sitting.

As a writer, I need to sit a lot. I get about 10 hours of intense physical activity every week, and while this helps, the simple act of prolonged sitting is still having a negative effect on my physiology, so I need to get up and move more. It’s not the caloric burn in my case, but simply counteracting the effects of being on my behind.

Many of us have jobs that require prolonged sitting, and it’s time to get creative in combating it. Even if you’re at a healthy weight and physically active, we really need to stop using our butts so much.

Advertisement

I’ve got a couple of ideas that I’m going to start using right away. First off, I’ve got my watch time set to beep every ten minutes, and I’m going to get up and do 30 seconds of moderate jumping jacks to get the blood flowing again.

That is just my short-term solution. I’m going to grab some boxes or something — I don’t know, I’ll have to tap into my almost non-existent inner handyman to rig something up — and get my computer screen and keyboard set up so I can type while standing. I want to try this as an experiment and see if I can handle it. I understand that there are different ways to make a standing workstation for cheap, as well as more expensive options.

Advertisement

So, I’m going to give the cheap do-it-yourself option a try first and see what happens. I know that this is going to be hard, but I’m going to try and persevere. I’ll report back in a while and let you know how it goes.

GET CHATELAINE IN YOUR INBOX!

Subscribe to our newsletters for our very best stories, recipes, style and shopping tips, horoscopes and special offers.

By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Advertisement
Advertisement