Sitting is really bad for your health? - The Press

Into The expert proposes new alternatives to the problem of physical inactivity and sitting for many hours a day, first at work and then at home. Just a bit ‘of exercise to counteract the negative effects?

We sit, sitting too. We are for many hours a day, maybe at work, and then when we get home we do the same.

“A recent survey found that many of us spend about eight hours a day to be sedentary, excluding the time spent asleep – said Dr. David Conroy, professor of kinesiology at Penn State – We’re sitting all day at work and then go home and sit in front of the TV. These types of long, uninterrupted sessions have been linked to obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer, each of which has been linked with mortality. “

Based on these findings, the prof. Conroy and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University have involved a group of students who had to keep a daily journal in which return the amount of time spent sitting down, and their intentions to reduce this time the next day. Participants in the study had also been equipped with a device that monitored the actual physical activity or not – it was a sitting or action.

According to Conroy, when we are sitting, there is very little activity big muscles we use to stand up and move around. Consequently, the energy metabolism decreases. As demonstrated by previous studies also only stand allows you to burn an average of 50 extra calories that do not sit: that, if added to the days of the year, 30 thousand well-allows you to burn calories, which equates to about 10 marathons.

“We found that participants sat for nearly two-thirds of their waking hours – Conroy said in a statement Penn – We also found that the session varies depending on the day of the week. People are spending more time sitting on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and less time on Saturday and Sunday. “
” In addition, we found that sitting is a habit. It is rooted more for a person used to sit, the harder it is to break the habit, “adds the expert.

The habit of sitting is therefore something that acts a bit ‘as a drug in the sense that the more you sit, the more you would. But because the damage that this bad habit can causing all are well known and quite serious, prof. Conroy and colleagues invite people to aim for even a small initial goal, encouraging us to take a break for 5 to 6 minutes every hour.
“We invite people to come out to go to the water fountain or walk regularly for rooms on the job – says Conroy – frequent interruptions in the amount of time spent sitting is likely that over time accumulate in value benefits to health. “

To set a good example, prof. Conroy has equipped his desk with a mechanism that allows it to be raised or lowered at will the computer, so you can work now sitting now standing.
“It took a little ‘time to get used to being standing at work – says Conroy – The lower back has made me very ill for a few days. To facilitate this way of working is best to wear decent shoes [comfortable]. The beauty is that in the afternoon I no longer have the physical collapse from the end of the day. This is my experience in doing these interruptions. “

Despite numerous studies and scientists have stressed the dangers of sitting all day, according to the expert are still a few who think this.