Staying Mobile in the Workplace for Better Joint Health
Do you sit more than you stand most days?
We have become a sitting culture. We sit in our homes, in our cars, in our offices, and even in drive-throughs to get dinner! Then we sit to eat our meals and to watch TV – often at the same time.
The problem is that our bodies are designed to be hunter-gatherers. We are built to move.
Now research shows that prolonged sitting has emerged as a new health scourge.
Headlines warn “Sitting is the new smoking.” Health experts have started to refer to inactivity as the “sitting epidemic”, or “sitting disease”.
Read on to find out the health consequences of a sedentary lifestyle, and how you can take a stand for your health!
Stand Up for Joint Health
We all have the same 24 hours a day, and in our modern lifestyle we typically spend a lot of it sitting or lying down.
Let’s add up how much time we spend sitting or lying:
Sleep = 7-8 hours
Sit as we drive to and from work = 1-2 hours
Sit at work = 6-8 hours
Sit for meals = 1-2 hours a day
Sit to watch TV, go online or read = up to 1-3 hours
Total sedentary time =approximately 16-23 hours a day.
That doesn’t leave us much time for activity, and health experts say that exercise at the end of the day isn’t enough to combat the havoc it’s wreaking with our health.
How does sitting affect your health and lifespan?
Research shows that uninterrupted sitting increases the risk of heart disease, because of reduced blood flow to your heart.
When your muscles switch into a dormant mode, it compromises their ability to break down fats and sugars, elevating your risk of diabetes, cancer and other conditions
According to “Sit-Stand Research”, from Juststand.org:
- A 2010 study of 120,000 adults, published by the American Cancer Society suggests that the more people sit, the shorter their average life span. NBC News reported on that research: "The study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that sitting itself is deadly. The research elevates sedentary behavior as an important risk factor, similar to smoking and obesity.”
- Sedentary lifestyles increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. “For people who sit most of the day, their risk of heart attack is about the same as smoking.” -Martha Grogan, Cardiologist, Mayo Clinic

