Am I sitting down for too long?

tumsbums

Through the media, I have heard quite a lot about how sitting down for too long is very damaging to your health and could knock years off your life! I know it seems a little silly, but it has made me slightly paranoid?

I try not to do an excessive amount of sitting most days, but each monday due to work, I sit in a car for two hours, then stay in the same building (mostly sitting) for the next 5 hours, then travel back in the car for another two hours. 10 Hours (and probably more) of just sitting.
Do you think I am doing some kind of damage to my health?

Thankyou!

yopeeps025

Wat?

cwolfman13

It depends on what you're doing overall. I have a desk job and a two hour round trip commute...I basically sit for 10 hours per day 5 days per week. But when I'm not at the office I make it a point to be otherwise active in addition to regular and deliberate exercise of which I get around 7-8 hours per week. That, in combination with a healthy and well balanced diet have resulted in me being quite fit and all of my health markers being in the optimal range.

tumsbums

cwolfman13 wrote: »

It depends on what you're doing overall. I have a desk job and a two hour round trip commute...I basically sit for 10 hours per day 5 days per week. But when I'm not at the office I make it a point to be otherwise active in addition to regular and deliberate exercise of which I get around 7-8 hours per week. That, in combination with a healthy and well balanced diet have resulted in me being quite fit and all of my health markers being in the optimal range.

Thankyou, this helped normalize my thinking again haha. I suppose if I keep active the other days one day a week cant be too bad?

DopeItUp

I wouldn't worry about it. It's not like you can do much about it, you need to get paid don't you? Just counteract with plenty of activity outside of work.

_runnerbean_

Have you tried tracking your steps through the day? For optimum health you are supposed to do 10k steps per day. If you track your steps and are way below that you could try gradually increasing by parking further away from work, taking stairs in office etc.

Raynne413

I think the important thing is not to sit for consecutive hours. Get up at least once an hour and move around. It doesn't have to be for long. I had blood clots when I was 20, so I already have to get up and move around for around 5 minutes each hour.

MelAb8709

2 hour commute one-way? Ouch.

I suppose you can't do much about that, but make a point to be active on non-work days and sneak more activity into your average work day. Example - I also have a desk job so I take my dog for a quick walk first thing in the morning, I park as far away as possible, I only take the stairs, I use the restrooms and water fountains in the building that are the farthest away from my desk, walk the dog again when I get home (or work out). I walk during my lunch break too (which is only 30 minutes). Sometimes I even go to the stairwell and walk a couple flights up/down just to get the blood flowing.

If I sit for more than 2 hours I start to get antsy anyway, ability to concentrate decreases - these little "breaks" really help.

Jesssamesssa

I walk on my lunch break. Its like 20 mins but its still not sitting on my butt, I also take a lot of breaks at work.

HelenWater

People who sit more than 11 hours per day do have an increased risk of chronic diseases like diabetes. The other thing that has been mentioned is walking for five minutes at least each hour leads to better health outcomes. These results are independent of other activity, so if you run for one hour each morning it doesn't mean you can sit down for the next 11 hours if you want to avoid those chronic diseases. The studies are studies undertaken on samples of populations, so it is all about probability. I use activity trackers and so try to move each hour, try to sit for less than eight hours per day, and try to walk 10,000 steps (or equivalent exercise) each day. You can find the studies if you look.

arditarose

Are you friends with the guy who just started the "standing office" thread? He has decided to stand in his office instead of sit because you can burn an extra 25,000 calories per year.

myfurturelooksgood

I spend alot of years in a desk job and what helped me then was to set a timer to make myself deliberately get up for some reason and move around. Now in retirement, I set a timer for 20 minutes each time I sit down. When it goes off, I get up and do some housework, food prep, laundry, whatever. I do it each time I sit down and it works for me. Yes, in addition I walk, do aerobics, treadmill, gym through the week as well. I know that sitting for extended lengths of time affects circulation and that is an issue for me genetically so I am very conscious of this.