Is sitting down is the new smoking?

Hang on Now

Heard this once a few years back. What are the reasons that this is considered bad?

Apparently your metabolism is slower when seated. Frankly, I'm not worried about that, as there's no fear of me getting fat. However when I'm seated, usually after about an hour, I begin to feel a very uncomfortable in my back side. A mere 2-3 minutes standing up makes it go away. But then when I sit down again, it occurs a bit sooner the next time... maybe 40 mins... depends on how long the break was. The amount of time it takes for me to begin to feel pain seems to vary. For example, in a car seat it takes a shorter amount of time. But sometimes I can do it for 2 hours or more and not feel uncomfortable.

At the moment I often do a 3 hour bus journey, and during this journey I stand up twice. I probably spend a total of 10-15 minutes standing at it. And I go towards the back of the bus to do this, because it isn't allowed! I might get the odd stare but I don't care. What's even more interesting, is no one else does this!? In spite of how bad it is for your health, and how uncomfortable it is, people are too self conscious to stand up.

Ultimately, this is what I'm asking; is that I suppose I shouldn't be worried about the amount of time I'm sitting down, but more so that I should make sure to get up whenever the uncomfortable feeling starts. And what are the consequences of prolonged periods of time with this feeling in my rear? I was talking to a lady recently about it, and she said that she also gets pains in her knees.

Anyone here know anything about this?

Gwynplaine

Anyone going out for a sit down?

Your Face

Ah feck - Ive set the couch on fire.

jamesbere

Your Face wrote: »

Ah feck - Ive set the couch on fire.

Is that because you have a hot ass

Hande hoche!

Thankfully I stand when I smoke.

Gwynplaine wrote: »

Anyone going out for a sit down?

Nipping out for a cheeky stand?

Have to say, i do like a good sit.

Chancer3001

Doing a masters in this area at the moment.

Sitting really is very very bad for you.

It's not sitting per se, it's the inactivity.

Even if you run for an hour or work hard at the gym for an hour every day...the sitting will undo most of the beneficial effects that the exercise has.

Very interesting.

Luckily to counteract it, getting up out of the chair for a minute or so every 45mins or so will counteract a lot of the negative effects

Harry Palmr

Sitting for extended periods is bad for you - no question. Messes up everything - digestive system (not joking here, you'll know the difference if you get a moving about manual job), circulation, joints, back, tense shoulders. A desk job staring at a screen is probably as insidiously an unhealthy a job as you can have.

Hang on Now

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Doing a masters in this area at the moment.

Sitting really is very very bad for you.

It's not sitting per se, it's the inactivity.

Even if you run for an hour or work hard at the gym for an hour every day...the sitting will undo most of the beneficial effects that the exercise has.

Very interesting.

Luckily to counteract it, getting up out of the chair for a minute or so every 45mins or so will counteract a lot of the negative effects

I'd like to know more about the physiological processes behind this, so that I'll be able to know whether or not it's possible to avoid the harms while studying. Is there anything you could refer me to?

Based on what you're saying, I'd want to be getting up more than 45 mins! But I'm not sure I understand what you mean anyway? On that note, couldn't that mean that one might be inactive if they're standing? And what's it ultimately down to? Is it reduced blood flow?

What's the title of the masters? And does it involve lots of sitting down?!

Hang on Now

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Sitting for extended periods is bad for you - no question. Messes up everything - digestive system (not joking here, you'll know the difference if you get a moving about manual job), circulation, joints, back, tense shoulders. A desk job staring at a screen is probably as insidiously an unhealthy a job as you can have.

I'm doing a masters right now that involves a certain amount of sitting down. And I wouldn't notice a thing different about myself if I were working as a gardener in the morning.

How do you know this? Did you change jobs at some point and notice a difference yourself?

Hang on Now

Harry Palmr wrote: »

A desk job staring at a screen is probably as insidiously an unhealthy a job as you can have.

And what does your job involve you doing?

Are Am Eye

Try telling that to the chair people.

whisky_galore

My boss doesn't force me to smoke.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

Chancer3001

Hang on Now wrote: »

I'd like to know more about the physiological processes behind this, so that I'll be able to know whether or not it's possible to avoid the harms while studying. Is there anything you could refer me to?

Based on what you're saying, I'd want to be getting up more than 45 mins! But I'm not sure I understand what you mean anyway? On that note, couldn't that mean that one might be inactive if they're standing? And what's it ultimately down to? Is it reduced blood flow?

What's the title of the masters? And does it involve lots of sitting down?!

Exercise science in Dublin.

It's down to mets generated. Google some studies done by mike Morris on call centre workers. That's a good place to start.

Forcing the people to work standing up had significant implications for improving their health. Standing desks were used.

Zero increase in exercise. Good increase in health benefits.

Harry Palmr

Hang on Now wrote: »

I'm doing a masters right now that involves a certain amount of sitting down. And I wouldn't notice a thing different about myself if I were working as a gardener in the morning.

How do you know this? Did you change jobs at some point and notice a difference yourself?

Well obviously! That's how I know. Desk bound workers are unfit unless they make sure to do a regular physical routine - they might think they are fine but the cardiovascular system needs work or it constricts and becomes less effective. The best way to show that is simply to go for a brisk walk on a cold day - it warms the system up better than any central heating boiler.

You mention not getting fat in your case, well it's not just the fat you can see that's an issue - think of what surrounds your vital organs.

Some reading here https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/killer-chairs-how-desk-jobs-ruin-your-health/

wakka12

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Sitting for extended periods is bad for you - no question. Messes up everything - digestive system (not joking here, you'll know the difference if you get a moving about manual job), circulation, joints, back, tense shoulders. A desk job staring at a screen is probably as insidiously an unhealthy a job as you can have.

Considering the vast majority of the population work an office job sitting down everyday all day, wouldn't we notice some huge health differences between them and people in other professions by now? The average office worker doesn't look significantly in any better or worse shape than people in manual labour for instance

LadyMacBeth_

Everything I do seems to be bad. I love chocolate and crisps and take away foods and sitting. I love bread and meat and not moving. I like the occasional binge drinking too. I despise exercise. Now I feel guilty when I get up and have toast for breakfast, thinking of all of the people who just cut it out. This morning my breakfast was lindt chocolates, I bet so many boardsies would be horrified. Fcuk it, it makes me happy.

Harry Palmr

wakka12 wrote: »

Considering the vast majority of the population work an office job sitting down everyday all day, wouldn't we notice some huge health differences between them and people in other professions by now? The average office worker doesn't look significantly in any better or worse shape than people in manual labour for instance

Apart from being heavier and being pale/covered in make up?

Anyway as I said look is not the thing to worry about, it's what's going on inside that really counts. I'd expect people who are in offices all day to have a higher resting heartbeat than those in manual work (all other things being equal - obviously someone who smokes with a **** diet will be a risk regardless of how they spent their working life)

Dial Hard

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I'd expect people who are in offices all day to have a higher resting heartbeat than those in manual work (all other things being equal - obviously someone who smokes with a **** diet will be a risk regardless of how they spent their working life)

But all other things very rarely are equal. A construction worker eating a breakfast roll every morning and a chicken fillet roll every lunchtime is a far more likely candidate for visceral fat than an office worker with a healthy diet.

What you seem to be extrapolating from the article you linked is that sitting a lot is a direct cause of weight and health issues. It's not. It simply exacerbates poor lifestyle choices that *some* people make. I'd also wager that a lot of the obsese people in the studies he mentions aren't obese because they sit a lot, they sit a lot because they're obese. Correlation doesn't always equal causation.

Hang on Now

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Exercise science in Dublin.

It's down to mets generated. Google some studies done by mike Morris on call centre workers. That's a good place to start.

Forcing the people to work standing up had significant implications for improving their health. Standing desks were used.

Zero increase in exercise. Good increase in health benefits.

Is that Mike Morris Trinity, or UCC?

corner of hells

Is it alright if I lie down while smoking in the office ?

Also I had a doughnut for breakfast and a painkiller for my shoulder .

PeterParker957

jamesbere wrote: »

Your Face wrote: »

Ah feck - Ive set the couch on fire.

Is that because you have a hot ass

Pics or......!!!

noonan84

Sitting down in a relaxed fashion also leads to bad posture-I know I've certainly got better posture when standing. .My physio gave me some good exercises for helping the posture-would recommend them highly!

server down

wakka12 wrote: »

Considering the vast majority of the population work an office job sitting down everyday all day, wouldn't we notice some huge health differences between them and people in other professions by now? The average office worker doesn't look significantly in any better or worse shape than people in manual labour for instance

Teachers should be healthier than other white collar workers if this is true. There probably is something to this but I wonder how much. The standing desk is becoming more popular in many offices.

Chancer3001

Hang on Now wrote: »

Is that Mike Morris Trinity, or UCC?

Michael Morris university of Chester

SEPT 23 1989

Why has there been an explosion in fitness in the last decade it's down to the desk jockeys

Any man who does a decent days work will tell you that putting on a pair of runners or getting on a bike is the last thing he thinks of of an evening

Akrasia

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Doing a masters in this area at the moment.

Sitting really is very very bad for you.

It's not sitting per se, it's the inactivity.

Even if you run for an hour or work hard at the gym for an hour every day...the sitting will undo most of the beneficial effects that the exercise has.

Very interesting.

Luckily to counteract it, getting up out of the chair for a minute or so every 45mins or so will counteract a lot of the negative effects

ok, but don't male lions sleep like, 20 hours a day?

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Are Am Eye

I like the idea of an academic sitting there typing up a paper on this subject.
Their flat mate beside them deep in groundbreaking work on Irony.

kenmc

I've used a standing desk in work for the last 3 years. Recently changed jobs and the standing desk hasn't arrived yet - I find my concentration is really suffering, falling asleep at the desk almost!

indioblack

Are Am Eye wrote: »

I like the idea of an academic sitting there typing up a paper on this subject.
Their flat mate beside them deep in groundbreaking work on Irony.

An interesting story slightly related to the thread.
In a factory I worked in some ten years ago there was a job that required the operator, [me], to sit down part of the time during the production process.
It was a practical necessity determined by the machinery being used - it was the most efficient way to complete the task during the production cycle.
I commenced my shift on this machine and asked my team leader why there was no seat for the part of the process that required it. He told me that the plant manager had ordered that any chairs in the production area were to be consigned to the rubbish skip.
I asked my team leader if he knew how many chairs the manager had in his office.
He replied that he didn't know - I told him I'd been to the manager's office and I did know. I also told him that I was older than the manager.
Warming to my theme, I told him that in my job I could talk standing up, read standing, write, run statistical process charts, process data sheets, computer keyboards - all whilst standing.
I concluded by stating that most of the tasks done in an office could be accomplished while standing and that the main reason people sat down in offices was status.
I then went to the skip, returned the chair to it's production point - and there it has remained.
"Them and Us". It's alive and, sadly, well.

Chancer3001

Akrasia wrote: »

ok, but don't male lions sleep like, 20 hours a day?

Yeah...

And pigeons eat directly off the ground.

And dogs eat their own vomit sometimes.

And kangaroos have a pouch for their babies.

And cows eat grass

Hang on Now

noonan84 wrote: »

Sitting down in a relaxed fashion also leads to bad posture-I know I've certainly got better posture when standing. .My physio gave me some good exercises for helping the posture-would recommend them highly!

Thankfully one can possibly avoid while seated. I'm not worried about It. I'm VERY mindful of my neck and shoulders while sitting.

Are Am Eye

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Yeah...

And pigeons eat directly off the ground.

And dogs eat their own vomit sometimes.

And kangaroos have a pouch for their babies.

And cows eat grass

The point you missed was that another mammal spends most of every day of it's life in a prone and stationary position. And yet suffers no harm. What is different in our physiology that sitting for a while is of detrimental harm.

I do think we should exercise daily as humans evolved to move every day and our cardio vascular system and muscles are designed to do exactly that. I don't see how sitting still, as well, for a few hours daily is particularly harmful.

Hang on Now

indioblack wrote: »

An interesting story slightly related to the thread.
In a factory I worked in some ten years ago there was a job that required the operator, [me], to sit down part of the time during the production process.
It was a practical necessity determined by the machinery being used - it was the most efficient way to complete the task during the production cycle.
I commenced my shift on this machine and asked my team leader why there was no seat for the part of the process that required it. He told me that the plant manager had ordered that any chairs in the production area were to be consigned to the rubbish skip.
I asked my team leader if he knew how many chairs the manager had in his office.
He replied that he didn't know - I told him I'd been to the manager's office and I did know. I also told him that I was older than the manager.
Warming to my theme, I told him that in my job I could talk standing up, read standing, write, run statistical process charts, process data sheets, computer keyboards - all whilst standing.
I concluded by stating that most of the tasks done in an office could be accomplished while standing and that the main reason people sat down in offices was status.
I then went to the skip, returned the chair to it's production point - and there it has remained.

Did you just seem to contradict yourself!

indioblack

Hang on Now wrote: »

Did you just seem to contradict yourself!

Just a little bit.
Rant over - I feel better now.

Old Perry

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Doing a masters in this area at the moment.

Sitting really is very very bad for you.

It's not sitting per se, it's the inactivity.

Even if you run for an hour or work hard at the gym for an hour every day...the sitting will undo most of the beneficial effects that the exercise has.

Very interesting.

Luckily to counteract it, getting up out of the chair for a minute or so every 45mins or so will counteract a lot of the negative effects

So you're a saying if I'm forced to sit down for long periods due to work etc. I should be at very least gettin up for a smoke every 45 mins and then everything will be A-okay. Sound thanks.

21Savage

I've read standing is no better. Your best best is to keep a good posture, get up every now and then and stretch and exercise once home.

Hang on Now

21Savage wrote: »

I've read standing is no better. Your best best is to keep a good posture, get up every now and then and stretch and exercise once home.

So a standing desk is no good either? Can I get a walking desk, where I do my work on a slow thread mill? or maybe a kind of hamster wheel thing!?!

Anyway, your info doesn't seem very reliable. The research that one of the other posters directed me to seems to suggest otherwise.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24297826

Chancer3001

Are Am Eye wrote: »

The point you missed was that another mammal spends most of every day of it's life in a prone and stationary position. And yet suffers no harm. What is different in our physiology that sitting for a while is of detrimental harm.

I do think we should exercise daily as humans evolved to move every day and our cardio vascular system and muscles are designed to do exactly that. I don't see how sitting still, as well, for a few hours daily is particularly harmful.

Haha do you really think all mammals are the same?

Hell, a bat sleeps upside down, couldn't hurt to do that?

Hilarious

SuperS54

Hang on Now wrote: »

However when I'm seated, usually after about an hour, I begin to feel a very uncomfortable in my back side. A mere 2-3 minutes standing up makes it go away. But then when I sit down again, it occurs a bit sooner the next time... maybe 40 mins... depends on how long the break was.

Have you tried Preparation H? Or perhaps one of those roundy pillows will a hole for your tormented hole?

Hang on Now

SuperS54 wrote: »

Have you tried Preparation H? Or perhaps one of those roundy pillows with a hole for your tormented hole?

That wouldn't make any difference, and that wouldn't be much of a solution anyway.

the beer revolu

Akrasia wrote: »

ok, but don't male lions sleep like, 20 hours a day?

Eh, not in a chair, though.

I have issues with my neck and have serious problems sitting.
I drive an hour to work and an hour home and that is about my limit for sitting. After that, I sit to eat my dinner but that's mostly it. How, I'd dearly love to be able to flop in an armchair in front of the tv for the evening. How I'd love to be able to sit around a table for hours after a meal.But, unfortunately, these are activities that give me a lot of stiffness and discomfort.

Thankfully, I'm good standing, walking and lying down.
I couldn't possibly do a job that required me to sit all day.

Chancer3001

Just the act of standing instead of sitting for 2 hours a day will lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

Will lower for resting heart rate too.

It's an accumulation of the little things that help win most wars

Hang on Now

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Exercise science in Dublin.

It's down to mets generated. Google some studies done by mike Morris on call centre workers. That's a good place to start.

Forcing the people to work standing up had significant implications for improving their health. Standing desks were used.

Zero increase in exercise. Good increase in health benefits.

What about when Elton John sits down for 2.5 hours to do a concert. You wouldn't call that kind of sitting down 'inactivity'? It has to be different!? I think we should do some research with Elton John, where by we compare his carbs burns sitting down (not playing) to sitting down while performing!

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Are Am Eye

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Haha do you really think all mammals are the same?

Hell, a bat sleeps upside down, couldn't hurt to do that?

Hilarious

We can identify the physiological differences in a bat which make it possible and actually beneficial for it to do this as opposed to a human.

You can now list off the physical characteristics in a lion which mean it can stay still a long time with no harm, these physical characteristics which are not present in a human?

Hang on Now

I think at lot of it has to do with what feels right! Sitting for long periods doesn't feel quite right.

Take me for example. When I stand up at my desk, in a matter of seconds, I tilt the screen, tilt the keypad by putting something under it, I spread my legs to get a wee bit lower, and it's just the same as sitting. The only thing about this, is the mouse. Think about it - you can't tilt the surface on which the mouse lies, and it's generally a bit low.

So assuming standing was as convenient as sitting, I'm guessing I'd spend about 50% of the time doing each, and probably alternating every 20 minutes. So what I'm saying is that, if that feel right for me, then that would be fine.

Tzardine

Gonna just drop this here.

TrustedApple

Myself I get up every hour form my desk get a drink or go to the loo.

Otherwise if I am busy it could be ages before I get up.

I am in luck now that I will be based over 2 office now so I can get up and have a 5 min walk between them when I need to head over to the other office.

But I do see some people who do not move for 4 or 5 hours from there desks!!!