Treadmill Desk

The evidence is mounting that all of those lifestyle steps you put on your pedometer when you aren’t purposefully exercising may be saving your life. Even if you logged 10,000 steps a day with a brisk hour’s walk, but sat most of the rest of the day, you are at a higher risk of death:? Sit still, die younger

The latest blast against sitting too much comes via a great article in in Men’s Health by Maria Masters – Why sitting all day is slowly killing you. She interviews researchers whose findings I’ve been reporting on for the past two years. Lack of non-exercise activity is a risk factor for heart disease, even if you exercise enough. It’s not enough to get in that good walk once a day — you need to find ways to move around more within the day.
10 ways stop sitting still

Besides the risk of heart disease, Masters covers how sitting leads to “muscle stiffness, poor balance and mobility, and lower-back, neck, and hip pain.” It tightens the hip flexors and gives your glutes amnesia.

Many people have taken to wearing toning shoes as one way to combat these effects of sitting still for much of the workday. Toning shoes claim to work the glutes more. I also use an balance disk as a seat cushion, which functions much like an exercise ball chair to give some imbalance and activation to my core muscles while sitting. I probably won’t convert to a treadmill desk, but a standing desk might not be a bad idea (and easy to do with my adjustable height IKEA home office furniture).

But the best solution is to find ways to get up, stretch and move around every half hour. Wear a pedometer to keep yourself honest about it. Yesterday I was working on a data project and logged fewer than 1000 steps in six hours.? Is that the Grim Reaper I see behind me?

Studies on Sitting Still and Health Risks: