Sitting for uninterrupted and lengthy periods, which is a common scenario in today’s office culture, has been related to various chronic diseases and poor health among office workers. According to a new research, some simple changes can counteract the detrimental effects of prolonged sitting.
According to Wuyou Sui, one of the researchers and a student pursuing his doctoral thesis in the department of kinesiology of the University of Western Ontario, a majority of people stay reclined or remain seated for around eleven hours each day even if they exercise regularly. And as human bodies aren’t designed for this prolonged sedentary time, they fail to provide optimal functionality with such reduced levels of activity. It boils down to one thing – we all need to move more than we do normally to avoid an array of chronic health conditions, which Sui revealed in a news release from the university.
During the study, some university students were recruited by the researchers to undertake a six-week program that was designed to modify the sedentary work culture. The participants had to choose the most effective strategies that compelled them to stand and opt for more frequent breaks during their desk work. Most commonly used strategies were phone reminders, and timers, among others.
At the end of the program, the participants started transforming these learnings into healthy habits. The study revealed that they were opting for breaks at least once every hour on an average. A stark contrast was when they remained seated for over ninety minutes at a stretch before attending the program.
According to Harry Prapavessis, co-author of the study and director of Western’s Exercise and Health Psychology Lab, some simple strategies can be developed to break this detrimental sitting habit and to move forward to a more standing lifestyle. Harry also added that productivity may or mayn’t be associated with this modified habit as the result on that is yet to be confirmed, but the positive effects of more standing are already ensured.
The researchers observed that two weeks after the completion of the study, the participants continued to sit less during their work hours by incorporating the methods to move more they’d mastered from the study.
These simple yet highly beneficial strategies include opting for walking discussion over email communications, standing while talking over the phone, making shorter but more frequent trips to water filters, using the washroom farthest to them, and walking during breaks, among others.
According to Sui, it’s human nature to experience difficulties when trying to incorporate new activities into a hectic day, which is perhaps the key reason for exercise and diet resolutions to fail sometimes. However, the study reveals that all of us can fight the detrimental “occupational sitting” by opting for a substitute regimen over the existent one while not bearing the overhead of adding a completely new one.
So, move more and sit less to stay away from the outcomes like increased risk of diabetes, heart disease etc associated with prolonged occupational sitting that has gained the moniker of “new smoking” from several health experts.
