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By Judy Heller

Judy Heller, founder of
Wonders of Walking LLC,
advocates walking for well being and pleasure. Wonders of Walking promotes Walking Events for Walkers by Walkers. Judy Heller is founder and owner of EroFit & Associates, LLC, celebrating Fitness for a Lifetime. Heller offers personalized fitness training and coaching for individuals and groups.
Contact: Judy Heller
at 503-282-1677:
email judy@erofit.com
jheller@wondersofwalking.com

Also visit: www.erofit.com
www.wondersofwalking.com

I only went out
for a walk and
concluded to stay out until sundown,
For going out,
I found
Was really going in.

— John Muir

Can Sitting Be Hazardous to your Health?

I often think “we don’t know what we don’t know.” Science asks questions and designs studies to discover the answer. To me, that is the rub. When we learn something “new,” we still don’t know what we don’t know.

We do know the health benefits of regular cardiovascular exercise have been well documented. There is strong scientific evidence that moderate to vigorous exercise plays a significant role in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and some cancers.(1) As the body adapts to increased activity, the opposite also appears to be true. It adapts to being inactive.

Guess What?
Now introducing the science of “sedentary behavior,” also called “inactivity physiology,” an emerging field of research in health, fitness, and medicine.

The recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (October 2009) shows that sedentary behavior appears to have a significant effect on some of the main contributing factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The authors highlight that even with physically active individuals, there is a strong association between sitting and mortality risk from all causes, including cardiovascular disease.

The body does learn to adapt and will adapt specifically and uniquely to the demands (or lack of physical demands) placed upon it. Physical activity does not cancel out the ill effects of too much sitting. This is true even if the person meets the current minimum physical activity guidelines (ACSM, 2006) of moderate intensity exercise for 30 minutes a day on most days of the week.

In other words, the information and research presently available suggests that sedentary behavior can be very harmful to your health. There is new evidence that prolonged, unbroken sitting time is related to people’s risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes, according to a lecture presented at the 56th annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in Seattle. If you are sitting for hours, your body begins to send out harmful signals that trigger the body to shut down vital metabolic functions. Metabolically active tissue stops being active.

“At the basic-science level, it appears that there are unique physiological processes and pathways associated with sedentary behavior, particularly prolonged sitting,” said Neville Owen, Ph.D., lead presenter. “There are some promising studies that point to what is likely to be a unique ‘sedentary physiology,’ which is distinct from what is known about the physiological processes generated by working muscle.”(2)

What to Do?
Your first step is to track your waking day movement profile. Track everything from the time you leave your bed to the time you return to your bed. Include how many hours of sleep you get as well.

What’s next?
How to add movement to your day:
At work:
• Stand up and walk around the office every 30 minutes
• Stand up and move every time you need to get some water
• Walk to the farthest bathroom in the worksite facility when going to the restroom (if multiple bathrooms are an option).
• Always stand or, even better, walk around the room when talking on the telephone.
• Consider getting a standing workstation where you can stand and work on the computer (most of these work desks can be raised and lowered so if the user becomes fatigued from too much standing there is an option to lower and sit in a chair or on a physioball to continue work).
• Consider doing a five-minute walk break with every coffee break
• Don’t email office colleagues; walk to their desks to communicate with them.
• Stand up and sit down several times (chair squats)
• Incorporate stretches and movements seated at your desk
• Wear a pedometer to see how many steps a day you are walking and add to them
• Practice tightening and relaxing muscle groups
• Consider standing when on the phone, coming up and down on your toes

At home, if a TV watcher:
• Get up and move during every commercial
• Take a five-minute walk break every 30 minutes
• Get a stationary piece of cardiovascular exercise equipment and use it for several minutes each half-hour of TV viewing or reading
• Stand up and do some easy (that is, not strenuous) lunges or squats at least once per half hour
• Stand up and do some alternating leg balance exercises at least once per half hour
• Stand up and move for the opening segment of each TV show

If a reader or doing seated activities:
• At the end of reading every four, six, or eight pages, get up to walk around the room or house. Stand up and do some stretches.

People who fidget burn more calories. Now we know why. It is the intermittent movement on a consistent basis that contributes to keeping metabolically active tissue active. Simply by standing up and moving around you will have healthier blood fat and blood glucose levels than you would if you did not break up your sitting time with these transitions.

How can you avoid the hazards of sitting too long? Walking is the best exercise and the easiest to add to your daily routine.

References: 1 May 28, 2009, Press Release, American Council on Sports Medicine. The Science of Sedentary Behavior: Too Much Sitting and Too Little Exercise Study suggests sedentary behaviors increase risk of chronic disease. 2 www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/151694.php.