4 ms·

> Evaluation of their joint association showed that participants classified as high for both sedentary characteristics (high sedentary time [≥12.5 h/d] and high

> Evaluation of their joint association showed that participants classified as high for both sedentary characteristics (high sedentary time [≥12.5 h/d] and high bout duration [≥10 min/bout]) had the greatest risk for death. Is sleep included in the 12.5 hours per day? Even if it isn't, I and everyone I know sits for at least that long each day. Definitely for more than 10 minutes at a time. If we need to interrupt our sitting bouts every 7.5 minutes in order to be healthy, I don't know how the hell to do this.

bitexploder 9y ago
I'd suggest every hour is a good stop gap. Take 5 minutes. Drink water. Walk, squat and stretch your hips. A nice deep squat, hold it for a minute. It is amazing how much stiffness this alleviates from sitting. Hip flexors get tight after about 15 minutes. It is one of the reasons desk warriors have so much trouble with IT band if they are also recreational runners. Tight-ass hips. I really despise smart watches, I turn off blue tooth and everything, but the Fenix 3/5 is my companion in my fitness journey. I follow the move indicator. When my watch buzzes, I move for 5 minutes in a way I just described and drink some water. It is annoying, but if you make it meditative and keep your task at hand in mind I have found, with practice, and this being something you always do, it does not disrupt flow state. Flow isn't like meditation, you can literally do this right in front of your monitor and keep thinking about your code or deep work task while you do it.
ams6110 9y ago
Well these are the same types of people who told us coffee was bad, saturated fat was bad, low-fat/carbs-rich diets were good, etc. and have been found to be wrong across the board. I don't worry too much about how other busybodies tell me I should live my life.
- bitexploder 9y ago
  Come on. This is HN. No one is telling anyone how to live their life. Well, people are but we all already know to ignore them right? We are trying to parse all this data about stand/sit/walk-desk and figure out if there is anything to it regarding overall mortality. If we can make some relatively small adjustments to our lives and gain back years that static positions may be taking from us why not? This is a quest for discovery about what the data is telling us. Yes, some of the time the data leads us on a path that is not the best (coffee/fats are bad?) -- it happens. Food and nutrition studies are worse than these types of studies, I think. There are so many more complicating factors compared to the broader strokes of these sort of lifestyle studies.
- 0xfeba 9y ago
  > saturated fat was bad, low-fat/carbs-rich diets were good That was the sugar industry.
nxsynonym 9y ago
I think its important to look at this studies from a birds eye view and not get too bogged down in the details. Is sitting for prolonged periods bad? Yes. Should you get up every 7.5 minutes to walk around? Probably over kill. If you're the type that goes into work, sits until lunch, then walks to the lunch table, then returns to your desk until closing time - you could probably benefit from more moving. My hope is that this study will encourage more work places to adopt standing desks, different working environments, and encourage activity through out the day.
- bitexploder 9y ago
  Other studies indicate standing all day isn't good either. You really need a combination of stand sit. I actually think ideal based on what I have read is going to end up being some sort of very slow walk. Static positions cause edema and clotting, period. The longer you hold a static position the worse it is. It can damage muscles due to reduced blood flow and the awkward stretching of muscles and connective tissue. I don't do this myself, but I think folks that can manage to slow walk at a tread desk are going to be the best and gaining back those years static positions shave. Yes, standing causes people to move around more, but I actually find standing dramatically more tiring than tread-desking when I have tried it. I prefer sitting and regular movement from the sitting position, tread desking, and finally standing desks. Personally, standing is also just not comfortable. I have run 50 mile races, and lift heavy things regularly for many years, so I have the physical conditioning for it... I just find it is the most draining way to work. It feels much harder on my body than walking all day or sitting and moving around at regular intervals.
  - nxsynonym 9y ago
    I'm not much of a desk-stander my self, but it's nice to have the option. To clarify, I was advocating encouraging more options for desk workers - not strictly standing at work. It would also be nice to have a longer standard lunch period. I would love to be able to work out and eat in the middle of my day, but 30 mins just isn't enough.
    - 9y ago

bitexploder 9y ago

I'd suggest every hour is a good stop gap. Take 5 minutes. Drink water. Walk, squat and stretch your hips. A nice deep squat, hold it for a minute. It is amazing how much stiffness this alleviates from sitting. Hip flexors get tight after about 15 minutes. It is one of the reasons desk warriors have so much trouble with IT band if they are also recreational runners. Tight-ass hips. I really despise smart watches, I turn off blue tooth and everything, but the Fenix 3/5 is my companion in my fitness journey. I follow the move indicator. When my watch buzzes, I move for 5 minutes in a way I just described and drink some water. It is annoying, but if you make it meditative and keep your task at hand in mind I have found, with practice, and this being something you always do, it does not disrupt flow state. Flow isn't like meditation, you can literally do this right in front of your monitor and keep thinking about your code or deep work task while you do it.

ams6110 9y ago

Well these are the same types of people who told us coffee was bad, saturated fat was bad, low-fat/carbs-rich diets were good, etc. and have been found to be wrong across the board. I don't worry too much about how other busybodies tell me I should live my life.

bitexploder 9y ago
Come on. This is HN. No one is telling anyone how to live their life. Well, people are but we all already know to ignore them right? We are trying to parse all this data about stand/sit/walk-desk and figure out if there is anything to it regarding overall mortality. If we can make some relatively small adjustments to our lives and gain back years that static positions may be taking from us why not? This is a quest for discovery about what the data is telling us. Yes, some of the time the data leads us on a path that is not the best (coffee/fats are bad?) -- it happens. Food and nutrition studies are worse than these types of studies, I think. There are so many more complicating factors compared to the broader strokes of these sort of lifestyle studies.
0xfeba 9y ago
> saturated fat was bad, low-fat/carbs-rich diets were good That was the sugar industry.

nxsynonym 9y ago

I think its important to look at this studies from a birds eye view and not get too bogged down in the details. Is sitting for prolonged periods bad? Yes. Should you get up every 7.5 minutes to walk around? Probably over kill. If you're the type that goes into work, sits until lunch, then walks to the lunch table, then returns to your desk until closing time - you could probably benefit from more moving. My hope is that this study will encourage more work places to adopt standing desks, different working environments, and encourage activity through out the day.

bitexploder 9y ago
Other studies indicate standing all day isn't good either. You really need a combination of stand sit. I actually think ideal based on what I have read is going to end up being some sort of very slow walk. Static positions cause edema and clotting, period. The longer you hold a static position the worse it is. It can damage muscles due to reduced blood flow and the awkward stretching of muscles and connective tissue. I don't do this myself, but I think folks that can manage to slow walk at a tread desk are going to be the best and gaining back those years static positions shave. Yes, standing causes people to move around more, but I actually find standing dramatically more tiring than tread-desking when I have tried it. I prefer sitting and regular movement from the sitting position, tread desking, and finally standing desks. Personally, standing is also just not comfortable. I have run 50 mile races, and lift heavy things regularly for many years, so I have the physical conditioning for it... I just find it is the most draining way to work. It feels much harder on my body than walking all day or sitting and moving around at regular intervals.
- nxsynonym 9y ago
  I'm not much of a desk-stander my self, but it's nice to have the option. To clarify, I was advocating encouraging more options for desk workers - not strictly standing at work. It would also be nice to have a longer standard lunch period. I would love to be able to work out and eat in the middle of my day, but 30 mins just isn't enough.
  - 9y ago