"... compared with people who rarely stood.... In theory, being upright should stave off this harm, since it’s the postural opposite of sitting.... But surprisingly little credible science supports all this verticality, and some studies have raised doubts.... [A]s you stand still, blood flows through your legs sluggishly at best and often pools there, potentially contributing to circulatory disease. You also barely raise your heart rate, which is necessary to improve cardiovascular health...."
I have a motorized stand/sit desk. I recommend switching from sitting to standing and from standing to sitting whenever you notice that you feel a bit uncomfortable. Be in touch with your own feelings.
And by the way, is standing "the postural opposite of sitting"? I was going to say no, but then I remembered...
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For the first 10 or so years of my law practice I primarily did real estate title work, which consisted of standing all day at raised tables and lifting heavy old deed books. Then I switched to litigation and got fat.
I sit for almost all of my workday but I keep one of those battery powered, remote control vibrating eggs up my ass and that seems to do the trick.
Eric the Fruit Bat wins the Internet for the day! Thank God we are moving to non-political subjects.
I have a motorized stand sit desk as well. I tried to stand more than I sit but find myself doing what Prof. Althouse recommends. I would stand if I felt the need and would sit if I felt the need. I ended up sitting >95% of the time. But maybe the battery powered ass egg is the way to go.
Fruit Bat, you really ought to warm people before you're going to say stuff like that! Hot coffee through the nose is painful.
Does the article next recommend those treadmill desks? My understanding is that those improve your health but decrease your productivity (because people only THINK they can multitask).
Sigh... *Warn
"Sitting. The great leveler... Who doesn't enjoy a good sit?"
Dont sit for long periods of time. Don't stand for long periods of time. And take breaks - get up and walk around or do some exercise. Advice from Dr. Rcocean
I always sit while bicycle riding, the best of both worlds.
It’s not surprising that standing still isn’t much better for us than sitting. We weren’t built to stand, we were built to move.
Only thing I miss about my old job was it was in a big building and I could jump up and run around for a few minutes like I was headed to the copier. (Always have a document on your hand).
I would do that every 20 minutes or so.
“Be in touch with your own feelings..”. As my trainer at the gym said “You have to listen to your body.” True. But as I get older and hard of hearing, my body is screaming at me now.
There's the health benefits of standing while peeing too.
I've had a stand desk for years. I note that years ago when I first got it, I stood up about 80% of the time. I was working then. Things were always fast and furious and I found that standing felt more in line with the energy of the work in front of me. (Plus...I always pace when I'm on the phone).
Then Covid. And a year into it I closed my business and retired. I now find that I'm writing more and sitting more. My creative self is hunkered down facing the laptop, head down. The old business me was standing up.
But I still stand up from time to time to change my posture. To 'stretch' as it were. I'm now at 80% sitting, 20% standing. My sitting is on an architects chair, raised high to match high table level. I like the view from here.
Get up and take a walk. Even 5 minutes makes a difference. Our corporate campus is big and if I make a round trip from my building to the main building and back it's almost 2000 steps. Do that 2-3 times a day and you've got a good start on getting 10,000 steps for the day.
What does a man do standing up, a woman sitting down, and a dog on three legs?
(shake hands)
Imagine all those poor wait staff workers either at McDonald's or any restaurant that have to stand all their feet for most of the shift. I hear once a year they fall over a die from strokes.
Mix it up. Sit and stand. Also do no always sit on a chair. Get your ass down on the floor and sit with legs crossed or straight out. If you can squat ass to grass do that a few times too. At 70 my most important activity of the day is an ass to grass squat to put the dog in and out of his harness and his walk.
talking about cats. Our cat must sleep 15 hours a day. But she is never in the same position. Stretched out, Curled up, sprawled out. The leg in the sun, the face in the sun, the bottom in the sun. Standing still? Almost never. Unless she's going after some prey. Then she doesn't move a muscle. Except the tail.
I've had a waiter job where on my feet. It motivated me to get my college degree so I could sit and work.
i use one of these at my standing desk or when I watch TV. It's much more enjoyable than just standing. Works the core too.
Amazon Basics Wood Wobble Balance Trainer Board https://a.co/d/d2R84MM
I have a motorized sit/stand table in my home office where I work several hours every day. I definitely prefer trading off sitting and standing all day, and I get the point about just standing not doing all that much good other than to relieve the stiffness from too much sitting.
As much as possible, I pace around in my office while my work table is in the stand position. If I'm attending a webinar, I pace around while I'm looking at the screen and listening to the audio. If I'm on the phone, I have my bluetooth in or the headphones on, and I pace around. I can tell the difference from that slow walking/pacing compared to just standing there rigidly. This idea is not original to me: a friend told me he does this all day in his home office in addition to doing a lot of walking outside. He averages at least 25,000 steps per day.
IIRC, Elton John had a hit song about this.
From the headline, I thought this was going to be an article criticizing Trump rallies.
I always figured weight training helps a fair bit. More resistance training means more muscle mass. More muscle mass means random muscle contractions move more blood through the veins, since unlike arteries, veins are not under pressure from the heart.
So, pay no attention to yesterday's experts, instead stand when you feel like it, sit when you feel like it. Kinda like yesterday's experts who said drink a quart of water every 15 minutes, while now they say drink when you are thirsty.
"Postural opposite" misses the main point of sitting, which is stillness. Walking is motion and motion is the opposite of being still.
I have a sit/stand desk. For the first five or so years I had it, I mostly stood. I acquired vericose veins so I switched to mostly sitting and now I’ve acquired 30 pounds.
Because they are in continuous motion they increase circulation and time passes quickly when you're actively working.
Huge difference between standing and walking. It took a scientific study to determine this.
You mean that you’re not supposed to just stand there or just sit there? You are supposed to move often. That would mean it has nothing to do with the type of desk.
From the article ...
But, by itself, it’s not enough to make us healthier. “To improve your overall health and lower your risk of heart disease, you have to mix in actual movement,” he said.
I suggest a little tap dance every hour or so. Or a vigorous stroll to the bathroom.
Haven't you heard, sitting is the new smoking! But yes, you need to do more than just standing around to stay fit, LOL. Human nature, we want the easy way out, right? Take a pill. Stand. Ha.
"So, pay no attention to yesterday's experts..."
This turns out to be good advice concerning lots of things.
Back in the day...
Any engineers will not feel it a wasted click.
Reclining is the opposite of standing, just as apathy is the opposite of love.
Sitting is to standing as hatred is to love.
Thus I hate sitting in my cubicle and doing my job.
Capillary consignments garner a progressive price.
Sitting doesn't transfer your weight through the sacroiliac joints. Standing/walking does.
For me, a much more important consideration than varicose veins.
I prefer to lounge on a comfortable sofa while putting my feet up, but then I also run 25km per day.
I have a motorized stand/sit desk.
Sounds like something Charlie Chaplin or Jacques Tati could have fun struggling with. Or like something from "The Sharper Image" catalogue, a good lead-in to a list of other eccentric household gadgets.
Standing to sitting to standing to walking - that is, moving, is the key. Get up and stretch your legs, go stroll the office floor for 5 minutes every hour. Move.
Believe nothing that you hear, and half of what you see.
I'm old enough to remember nerds status-signalling with an hp calculator on their belt, slide rules, rapidograph pens, and LeRoy lettering stencils.
I trained for and ran marathons for a decade or more ... as a chef, I am/was on my feet all day. I am nearing 70 with blood clots in one leg, varicose veins in both, and have had three venous seals so far in the past year. The clots are down below 25% of their original sizes (thanks, body, for doing SOMETHING other than keeping me horny all the effing time), but that leg has had two of the seals and it still swells up daily, even with compression socks. I have to elevate it at night so it reduces from Hindenburg size to Lincoln log to start the day. BTW, I had trouble at the county courthouse the other day ... I forgot to mention that I have a titanium hip on my right side which set off all the bells and whistles ... plus a security person noticed my handcuffs key and told me I could not take it upstairs into a courtroom. I told her I was an amateur magician and she would please throw it away for me, I have others.
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