Standing Is Better Than Sitting—and Not Just for Your Health
It just doesn’t seem fair that the last bastion of comfort, sitting, is now relentlessly described as bad for us. I was sitting when I listened to this podcast, “Stand Up. Right Now.” OK, I was in the car at the time. But when I’m in my office, I usually don’t remember to stand unless I’m listening to podcasts like this one or reading articles on how horrible sitting is supposed to be for us.
According to the podcast guest, Dr. James Levine, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, that has to change. Even if you go to the gym or do other exercise regularly, if you sit for long hours at your job, the amount of time spent exercising doesn’t counteract all the time you spend sitting. (And most people don’t even exercise regularly.)
One of the things that makes sitting so bad is just that: we sit badly. When we sit at a desk for hours at a time, we tend to slouch. We strain our necks. Blood circulation slows down, leading to leg disorders. I’ll stop there, because the full list of risks is depressing.
If you need additional inspiration to stand, there are plenty of articles to choose from, and not a one recommends that you forget all this bad news and enjoy being seated. Plain and simple, sitting too much is bad. Standing is good. And moving around is even better, because when you’re upright and active, your body is at work.
But the solution isn’t to redesign the office or outfit everyone with a treadmill desk; it’s not the sort of expenditure management is likely to spring for. Instead, find ways to incorporate movement into the workday. This can be done, according to Levine, by converting seated hours to standing hours, such as at meetings, when on the phone, and while gossiping with your workmates. You can even just stand up and move around for a few minutes each hour.
As unnatural as it may seem at first to be standing while doing activities normally associated with sitting, studies suggest that productivity and creativity improve. People become more energized. They have more fun. Just as we’ve adjusted to various technological changes, Levine says we can also adjust to doing more while standing.
If you don’t have time to listen to the full podcast above, just listen to the first twelve minutes. You’ll get the gist. Then, stand up and walk around for a while. Your health—and, possibly, your productivity—will thank you for it.
