This is the first in the babyboomers.com series on easy daily changes that can lengthen your life and ward off chronic diseases. Find out what you can do to offset the serious consequences of too much sitting.  

WE are not “sedentary,” right? We don’t sit on the couch all day staring at the TV. We jump out of bed in the morning, ready to start a busy day. If we’re lucky we have time to stretch, workout or walk the dog. Then we sit down to catch up on the news, do some email, drive to the office or do some work at our computer. Maybe meet up with a friend for lunch. Have a meeting or two in the afternoon. More time on the computer. Dinner, then maybe relax with a movie or a book. Oops. We just spent about 10 hours sitting.

In fact, 10 hours is the average that people who work in an office spend sitting through the course of a typical day. If you don’t work in an office, consider yourself lucky in this regard. But between driving, computer time, and downtime entertainment, you may still spend a lot of your day in a “chair.”

Sitting is a way life. But it’s also the way to shorten our lives and bring on a variety of problems we’d rather avoid.

Here’s what happens when we sit. Our metabolism slows down and our circulatory system pumps less blood to our organs and our brains. Our connective tissue tightens and shortens. Our muscles lose strength. People who sit too much are at risk for diabetes, weight gain, heart problems, back pain, deteriorating balance, varicose veins, and deep vein thrombosis. Medical experts have even linked sitting too much to a greater risk for dementia, depression and cancer.  

Studies now show it’s not just the accumulated time we sit each day – but also the length of time we spend sitting at one time. It takes just 30 minutes of sitting for our metabolism to slow down 90 percent. The muscles in our lower body go into limbo. Good cholesterol drops. Long periods of sitting deactivate an enzyme called “lipoprotein lipase” which breaks down fats in blood vessels.

You get it. If we sit too much, we pay the price.

Here are four ways to approach offsetting the time you sit:

Interval breaks

It’s recommended you stand up and move around for 10 minutes out of each hour you sit. That’s tough if you’re in a movie or a meeting. But whenever you can, follow this schedule – pause what you’re doing and do something else that involves movement. Walk around while you make a phone call. Walk down the hall for a drink of water. Take a walk at lunchtime. Stand where you are and stretch. Even the act of standing up from your chair gets the blood flowing because your body is fighting gravity.  

Vigorous activity

Recommendations differ as to the amount of robust activity needed to offset the long hours spent sitting. A 2016 study conducted in Norway found that “people who sit for more than 8 hours a day, but who also exercise for 60 to 75 minutes a day, are not at increased risk for early death, compared to people who sat for less than 4 hours a day and reported high levels of physical activity.” Another study suggested the ratio depends on how much you sit: people who work a typical eight-hour day should spend at least one hour each day moving; if you sit six hours a day, you should spend half an hour exercising. The research also indicated that the exercise doesn't have to be all at once — it can be spread throughout the day and be as simple as walking.

Standing desk, tread-mill desk or desk ball

When it comes to these substitutes for the more traditional desk and chair, there are advocates and opponents.

The standing desk avoids some of the problems of sitting all day, but experts warn that standing for many hours can be hard on your back and cause blood to pool in your legs.

For the more adventurous, there’s the treadmill desk, so you can walk while you work. Proponents say it alleviates nervous energy, and of course, can help with weight management and time management. Other people there are certain tasks involving fine motor skills that simply can’t be done while moving – and admit they would never walk all day.

Sitting on an exercise ball, also called a yoga ball, is said by some to encourage correct posture, burn calories, and improve balance – while other experts say it increases pressure on the spine and after the novelty wears off, people can slump on a ball just as well as they can in a chair.

The consensus seems to be that any of these alternatives to the traditional desk and chair are probably not practical or ideal for a full work day. But the good news is that since there’s no perfect “prescription,” the best advice seems to be to vary what you do during the day, incorporate movement as much as possible, and choose from the various options when you’re deciding about your desk. 

For example, Nancy Rizzuto, Founding Partner and Principal of Capital Strategies Investment Group, moves around constantly during the day – meeting with clients and prospective clients, connecting and empowering women through the Capital Strategies Women's Forum, mentoring, and traveling between corporate offices in Chicago and in Jupiter, Florida. But she says, “When I bring work home in the evening, I’m adding several hours to my day.” 

Nancy tried the yoga ball in her home office, but says, “I was still sitting way too much!  And I've heard that sitting is the new smoking!  So, I replaced the yoga ball with a standing desk.  It's one of the best investments I've ever made!”  

Under Nancy’s desk, she has an ergonomic foot rest with balls on it so when she does sit, she can properly position her feet and move them on the balls. That brings us to our fourth approach:  

Gizmos and gadgets

Here’s a list of 31 fitness aids put together by PC Magazine that you can use on, under or in place of a traditional desk.

So, don’t just sit there. Stand up against gravity and get moving!

Watch for the second in this series For Your Own Good in the next issue of babyboomers.com.