Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/06/just-11-minutes-of-exercise-can-reverse-the-effects-of-sitting-all-day.html
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What if I’m sitting when I’m exercising, like on a row machine?
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Well they say cycling, and you sit (mostly) while you cycle, so I assume it’s probably fine.
Waiting for the Tech Bro lifehack where someone builds their desk into a rowing machine.
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Huh, I’d read some research that suggested this wasn’t true, that the deleterious effects of sitting* weren’t completely erased even by significant exercise later. (And that standing created its own issues.) I suspect this is going to be controversial for a while.
*This issue isn’t “sitting” per se, but how you sit - squatting is perfectly fine, for example. Unfortunately modern Western society doesn’t support that. There are no work desks designed around that, for example. (It’s unclear to me if you wouldn’t have to redesign keyboards/computer inputs to make it possible, too.)
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The best exercise is constantly moving the goalposts. The authors of this study must be very fit indeed.
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Moderate exercise is considered to be the equivalent of brisk walking or biking, and if you’re aiming for 30 minutes a day, it doesn’t even have to happen all at once.
so “exercise” could be using the stairs, walking from meeting to meeting, walking around the corner to get coffee? for me, this headline translates to “sitting doesn’t kill you unless you do literally nothing else.” but then i didn’t read the study and i’m probably doing much worse things to my body than sitting.
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Right? I’ve pretty much decided by this point that what’s bad for me is the fact that I’m alive.
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It has a 100% mortality rate.
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Either squat or, ypu know, incorporate parkour into your routine!
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sounds legit
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are you often sedentary on your erg?
I think that ‘brisk’ wasn’t included merely as filler. But yes; if you walk briskly from meeting to meeting, to get coffee, etc, and do it for a cumulative 30 minutes per day.
I guess that’s the point of doing this meta analysis: take that research into the effects of sitting, combine it with other research into the effects of moderate exercise, and see what you come up with.
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Does engaging in energetic sex on an office desk or in a supply closet qualify as exercise?
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It’s the leading cause of death.
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I just walked quickly for 11 minutes because it’s damn cold outside. No longer because I’m still recovering from a knee replacement and back work. I feel much better now, lounging with a laptop and a strong beer. As Zippy the Pinhead would ask: Am I reversed yet?
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Lose almost 400 pounds (and your desktop computer)
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Gosh so does this mean those endless articles, literally hundreds in the last 5 years, that told us exercise was completely powerless against the awesome destructive power of sitting down, were full of shit?
They barely stopped short of saying even if you fast for a week, if you are sitting in an office chair during that week you will gain massive amounts of weight. And acquire diabetes.
I never heeded those other insane warning bells because exercise can clearly overcome sedentary behavior–it’s the opposite of sedentary behavior. And it makes sense from an evolutionary perspective that we are extremely active at times and extremely inactive at other times.
I bet this article is the outlier, and in short due we will once again be subject to dozens or hundreds more “sitting is the devil” articles, told how we are spending too much time in a chair doing very little.
But at the same time we are told we aren’t spending enough time laying down on a mattress unconcious, doing absolutely nothing.
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I was going to reply that I agree, something is clearly afoot! But I’ve been sitting at my desk for while, so my foot is asleep.
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“Seven! That’s the key number!”
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Oh yeah, and the treadmill desk is a known phenomenon as well. Couple people had one in my last office, which I thought was a neat idea.
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I often think about lions and other big cats (well, and small cats for that matter) who are absolute puddles 20 hours of the day, then get up, kill a gazelle, then eat like 80 pounds of red meat, and lie back down. I know we’re on a different evolutionary pathway, but it seems worth bearing in mind that a pretty chiseled mammal can live a pretty dream-y lifestyle…
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