The Consumerist: "If you've ever worried that you were slowly dying by spending your days trapped in cubicle-land, you don't have to worry anymore. You're right. And according to new research, the threat isn't merely existential. Sitting for long periods of time set off a chain reaction of events that quicken your shuffle off this mortal coil.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Sitting Can Literally Kill You
The Consumerist: "If you've ever worried that you were slowly dying by spending your days trapped in cubicle-land, you don't have to worry anymore. You're right. And according to new research, the threat isn't merely existential. Sitting for long periods of time set off a chain reaction of events that quicken your shuffle off this mortal coil.
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8 comments:
Well. I would like to see this brought to the attention of our country. And the world. I wonder what happened in the last few centuries that led to this horrible way of life. How could we loose sight of the vertically active world of the past? Now we're destroying ourselves in comfort. It is obviously true that there CAN in fact be too much of a good thing. Unfortunately, there would have to be a major movement (get it? movement?) toward changing our nation's way of life in order to see any change. And I think a lot of people would find it hard to believe that they are harming their health by sitting if they are health conscience and exercise a lot.
This is actually quite unsettling. I don't want to die from sitting all day. Just think about the millions of students that sit for the majority of the day in classes. Perhaps we another reason for Americas obesity problem. It's a good think I draft standing up for the most part. We just need to move more as a nation. We are just so lazy and we get caught up in our work that we just stop moving. It's a bad habit we really need to change. I don't think its just us sitting at desks all day.
This is quite a frightening article. Knowing that we have been raised to sit for almost the entirety of a day (thanks, school) and finding out that it is shortening our life span is awful. Knowing that changing our diets and exercising more does very little to help us, I think that the school system should be re-worked and everyone should move to standing desks, that way we no longer have to face this issue.
I like how articles like this often get more attention than the ones about actual productions and openings. All joking aside, this os important for people in our line of work. Especially as a technician, regardless of your field of study, you spend a lot of time sitting and little time working out. drafters, TD's, designers, managers all spend a significant amount of time at there desks researching or drawing or whatever it is we do. If there's no way to work off the time spent sitting down, then we're going to be dealing with a generation of really unhealthy technicians...
I think that this article does have a valuable point: we should find ways to stand up and move around while we work. The standing desk is a great idea.
However, while finding a way to stand during work is important for our health, there are many, many things in this world that can kill us.
Unfortunately, in modern society almost anything we do, eat, or want can kill us. So yes, we should be concerned about sitting all day, but there's no need to feel so dire about it.
I worked in retail for a while and had to stand most of the day because sitting looks bad to customers. I had a stool to sit on if I got really tired, but standing all day did help keep me energized. I was also very tired by the end of each day though. I recommend standing, but life will not "literally" end because you sit everyday.
we should get those spinning machines to sit on all day. Then you are actively using your legs and core while remaining stationary and basically sitting. I thinking about this while chatting in my spinning class, they are fairly comfortable and function as chairs. but also keep you moving.
After discussing this article earlier in Basic PTM class, I was very curious to investigate it myself and am quite pleased with the results. This reminds me though of the "exercise balls as a chair" phase and cannot wait until people start producing articles about knee problems from standing. Not withstanding the past and future of this fad, I'm very interested in this technique. It definitely made me miss the larger drafting desks consider new designs for my desks and furniture for next year. Nevertheless, this article was very informative and provoked quite a bit of design thought in me and feel less blame for gaining weight after learning how to draft.
Yes, this article is scary. But actually in this world there isn't really anything that doesn't put you closer to death. Sure sitting is bad but if it is a requirement of your job I don't really see a way of getting around it. Also if you get a standing desk and use it improperly then you will ruin your back. There are many ways to destroy your body, and sitting is a lot better then some of them (i.e. excessive drug use). I also feel as though this article makes it seem ok to not exercise and eat healthy when really you should do that but just know that it will be harder to get it to have an effect if you are sitting all day. I guess this is one of the things that come with a desk job and with how our modern computer driven society is tending.
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