Too much of anything can kill you. The same is true of fried food, alcohol, and now – researchers are finding out – sitting. A study reveals that men who sit six hours or more a day have an overall death rate that’s 20 percent higher than men who sit for three hours or less. For women, it’s 40 percent.
Here’s how sitting affects your health: when you slump in your chair, your calorie-burning slows to a third of the rate compared to standing up. Metabolism drops. As a result, your risk of becoming obese and developing diabetes grows.
And consider this: nothing you do can cancel out the effects of sitting eight hours a day in the office. Sitting harms you even if you benefit from a gym workout. The antidote, therefore, is to simply sit less – to the point that it stops being poisonous.
You can see the appeal of standing desks. The theory goes that by standing instead of sitting at work, you burn more calories and counteract the effects of staying stationary for long periods of time. But while the solution sounds straightforward, it’s no magic bullet.
Is standing eight hours a day the cure?
The short answer is no. There’s a lack of research directly linking standing or treadmill desks to improved health, so any conclusions we make will have to rely on anecdotes and common sense based on other research. Here lies the problem: while plenty of people vouch for the health benefits of standing desks, enough critics have also questioned the practice after trying it out.
Let’s throw in a bit more research: it turns out prolonged standing causes health problems too. Plenty of studies show that it increases the risk of carotid atherosclerosis (a disease of the arteries) ninefold due to the extra load on your circulatory system. You’re more likely to get varicose veins, which cause all sorts of complications.
For many folks, standing all day is unpleasant business, and it’s not just about getting used to it. Your knees hurt, you get more distracted at work as you’re constantly adjusting your posture, and your feet start to feel numb, as this poor woman found out.
Perhaps a person doesn’t need to sit or stand all day. How about a happy middle, where you spend half your time at a standing desk and the other half sitting?
No magic number
This arrangement is intuitive but too simplistic. Researchers have not figured out the amount of standing that is optimal for your health. The benefits of standing four hours a day, let’s say, could be negligible.
To find a workable solution, we need to look beyond ourselves and study the healthiest communities in the world. Author and explorer Dan Buettner did just that, and he found that you don’t need to be a gym rat to live a long, healthy life.
Instead, they do regular, low-intensity physical activity that’s a part of their life routines. For example, one community in Okinawa (Japan) tends to sit on the floor, causing them to get up and down over thirty times a day. In the communities that Buettner studied, he finds that walking is key to long and healthy lives.
So it’s not just about how much you ought to sit or stand, but the amount of low-level physical activity you do in a day.
Standing desks, if used correctly, are just part of the solution. You need to figure out a routine that you can stick to day in and day out. Sometimes, all it takes is buying furniture. In other cases, you may need to convince your boss to restructure the office environment to encourage movement.
Anyway, here are some suggestions on integrating standing desks into your routine:
1. Use a gel mat with your standing desk
A gel or anti-fatigue mat supports your feet and lessens pressure on your body. As a result, you’ll stand longer.
2. Do simple exercises throughout the day
Doing air squats is a great way to break down of fats in your body and improving circulation in your legs. Do as many squats as you can between tasks or before lunch.
You could do walking meetings, which not only add to your physical activity count, but stimulates alertness and creativity. Simple choices like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, once added up, could benefit you.
3. Prioritize productivity
If you’re spending too much time fretting about your routine or overexerting, it’s not worth it. If you feel uncomfortable standing after a while, sit. You can always go back to standing later. You’ll get into a rhythm over time. For example, you could start the day by standing, and tie in certain tasks with it. As the day wears on, you could sit and pair that with other routines. Or, if you prefer, switch between sitting and standing many times a day to keep yourself energized.
4. Getting your sitting and standing posture right
Finally, it’s not just how long you stand, but how your stand. This infographic shows the correct posture you should take while at work:
See more: 5 tweaks to boost productivity levels in your startup office
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The post Health benefits of standing desks: separating hype from reality appeared first on Tech in Asia.
Health benefits of standing desks: separating hype from reality
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