Sitting is killing us

Published 4:00 pm Thursday, September 19, 2019

As many of you do, I sit a lot. I just got back from a road trip for work. It involved getting out of bed at 4 a.m. to sit at the airport to wait for a 6 a.m. flight. I sat on the plane. I walked (a little) to the boarding gate of my next plane. I sat at the boarding gate. I got on my next plane. Sat on that plane. Sat in a cab for 50 nauseating minutes. I sat in meetings and meals. Then I went to bed.

Forty-eight hours later I reversed that travel schedule so I could get back to my desk and … wait for it… stand. I stand at my desk – most of the time. A few years back I started reading some of the statistics related to sitting and our sedentary lifestyles – and they scared me into action.

My first action was to create a standing desk out of copy paper boxes. Not pretty – but it works. Then I convinced my wife I needed a cheap treadmill to stick under my desk. I got away with ordering the treadmill, but when I tried to elevate my very heavy 1950’s desk on cinder blocks to pull it all together, Jill rightfully saw the danger and made me stop my shenanigans.

A greater and greater percentage of American jobs (and most all the high-income jobs) are “knowledge” jobs. Knowledge jobs have us sitting for most of the day.

The average person sits for 9.3 hours per day. That is more time than we spend sleeping (7.7 hours).

All this sitting is killing us.

A recent study found that if you sit six-plus hours per day, you are 40% more likely to die within the next 15 years than someone who sits less than three.

And going to the gym doesn’t counteract the ill the bad sitting does to your body.

In a previous article on the health habits of the Amish, we noted that their active lifestyles were a key factor in their health. This new information shines a much brighter spotlight on the damage that sitting causes.

A few more scary stats before we get to the solution:

• Each extra hour of TV watching increases your death risk by 11%.

• Those who sit watching TV for 3 hours or more per day are 64% more likely to die from heart disease.

• Obese people sit for 2.5 more hours per day than thin people.

What happens when you sit?

• Electrical activity in the leg muscles shuts off.

• Calorie burning drops to 1 calorie per minute.

• Enzymes that break down fat drop 90%.

• After 2 hours of sitting, good cholesterol drops 20%.

What Can We Do?

1. Keep up or increase your daily exercise regimen. Exercise cannot counteract all the ill effects of 8 hours of sitting, but every minute helps.

2. Stand more. According to Dr. James Levine, author of “Get Up!: Why Your Chair is Killing You and What You Can Do About It,” you should take breaks from sitting every 50 minutes. Take a walk, do some squats at your desk or stretch a little.

This can also be a great productivity trick. Practice focusing on one task for 50 minutes with no interruptions and then give yourself an exercise break.

3. Try Standing Meetings. They are a ton shorter than sit down meetings and Susie from accounting will shorten her stories a bit if she is not so comfortable!

4. Use a Standing Desk. There are a ton of benefits to a standing desk. Less back pain, better posture, increased calorie burn and more energy to name a few.

Don’t think standing is healthy either? You are right that standing can begin to hurt, so be ready to break down your box desk and go back to sitting a few times in the early days. But you’ll soon notice that you don’t actually stand still while you are working at your standing desk.

You’ll shift your weight from leg to leg. You stand on one leg. You do squats to work through the uncomfortableness. You move!

And moving is what will make you healthier, prolong your life and make your days more enjoyable.

If you’d like some great resources to help you on your entrepreneurial journey you can find them on our resources page at www.valuesdrivenresults.com or call me at 229.244.1559.

Curt Fowler is President of Fowler & Company and Director at Fowler, Holley, Rambo & Stalvey. He is dedicated to helping leaders create and achieve a compelling vision for their organizations.

Curt is a syndicated business writer, keynote speaker and business advisor. He has an MBA in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from the Kellogg School, and is a CPA.