“A rose by any other name is still a rose – William
Shakespeare”
It has many monikers – tushy, bum, butt, booty, derriere,
bottom, behind, caboose… You can’t watch
tv for long without seeing infomercials hawking undergarments that will make it
rounder, exercise videos that will make it higher and firmer, even plastic surgery
(who in the world wants an implant there?!).
They all promise that, for a price, their product will make yours firm enough
to bounce a dime off But for as much
attention as our society gives to the gluteus maximus, one important fact is
woefully ignored – with most people sitting 70-90% of their waking days, our
“money makers” are in serious need of us taking some time off them.
If 70-90% seems like an exaggeration, take this into
account. In a 2009 study at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton
Rouge, Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk found that adults and children spend 70% or more of
their day sitting -- working at a desk, riding in a car, eating meals, playing
video games, using a computer and watching tv.
Why does it matter? That same study also found a strong association
between sitting and mortality, even when the subjects participated in 30
minutes of activity a day. In other
words, the more you kick back on your keister, the higher your likelihood of
Cardiovascular disease and early death.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that you don’t have to do a lot of exercise
to tip the mortality scale in your favor. Dr. Len Kravitz of The University of Mexico
cites a study of self professed couch potatoes -- people who didn’t, wouldn’t
and had no intention of exercising. One
group was overweight, the other group had a healthy weight. The difference between the two groups was simple. The people who had a healthy BMI moved more
throughout the day. “Fidgeters” burned
an additional 352 calories a day. Yep,
that annoying co-worker who is always tapping his foot or clicking her pen isn’t annoying after all, they’re
burning calories and adding days to their lives (annoying fidgety days perhaps,
but days nonetheless). Kravitz
recommends an action plan to combat sedentary behavior. Start by tracking
everything you do from the time you wake up until the time you go to
sleep.
Once you figure out how much time you are currently moving,
Kravitz offers what he calls “interventions” to make sure you never sit for
longer than 30 minutes at a time.
Work
interventions include:
- stand up and walk around the office every 30 minutes,
- stand up and move every time you send an email
- if your work site has more than one bathroom, walk to the one farthest from you
- park in the farthest parking spot
- take a walk break instead of a coffee break
- pace or walk around the room when you talk on the phone (please just make sure you have a cordless phone!)
Home interventions include:
- Get up and move during commercial breaks
- Stand up and move during the opening of each TV show
- At the end of reading 4, 6 or 8 pages, get up and walk around the room or house (or after reading a blog by a certain witty personal trainer. Just sayin’…)
Another Kravitz suggestion is the "sit, stand, sit". Literally every time you sit down,
immediately stand back up, then sit down again.
I have to admit it looks a bit obsessive compulsive, but he says you can
perform and extra 10,000 squats a day with this method of sitting.
Besides, it can’t be any weirder than obsessively tapping
your foot or clicking your pen.
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