Spending too much time in a chair can unravel your fitness goals and make you feel older. Here’s how to counteract it.
Experts often say sitting is the new smoking, linking long periods of it to obesity, high blood pressure and unhealthy cholesterol — even if you meet physical activity guidelines. We’ve all heard that sitting too long is bad for you. We’re not evolved to do it, it can undermine our exercise gains, it causes dead butt syndrome. Sitting might not quite be “the new smoking,” but too much of it can still shorten your life.
One way to lower the risk, the authors wrote, was to add 15 to 30 minutes of physical activity per day to your existing routine. Other studies go further, suggesting sedentary people need to double the standard weekly exercise recommendations. Sitting for extended periods has also been linked to lower back pain. Small studies suggest the height of your lumbar disc might be compressed after sitting more than four hours without interruption.
Set a timer at work: If you can’t add that much movement to your day, try adding small bouts, spread throughout the day. Brian Cleven, a clinical exercise physiologist in Marinette, Wisconsin, recommends working some exercises into your day at your desk. Try 10 to 15 repetitions of pointing and flexing each foot, seated calf raises and marching in place. Or try a quick exercise snack.
If nothing else, try fidgeting: If you can’t get up — say, during a long car drive — at the very least you should change your body position, ideally every 15 to 30 minutes, Dr. Barone Gibbs said. You can do this with small, subtle movements, like fidgeting by tapping or jiggling your feet every few minutes.
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