Keep it Moving! Stop Sitting at Work
Sitting is the New Smoking
The new phrase going around corporate America lately is, “Sitting is the New Smoking”. Dr. James Levine, director of the Mayo Clinic and inventor of the Treadmill desk, is credited with creating this mantra. Dr. Levine summed up his findings on sedentary lifestyles into 2 sentences, “Sitting is more dangerous than smoking, kills more people than HIV, and is more treacherous than parachuting. We are sitting ourselves to death”.
Americans are spending more time sitting than ever before: driving to work, sitting at a desk, driving home, cooking dinner, eating dinner, watching TV, and helping our children with homework. Out of that daily routine, the only non-standing task is cooking dinner. We have all heard for years how bad smoking can be for your body. People can quit smoking and the body may start to recover, whereas many of the health effects of sitting are not reversible. The best answer is to get up, move around and move often.
Last week, our local paper, San Diego Union Tribune featured an article about how sitting all day can lead to serious health issues. Some of these health issues included obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol, and posture issues. Amie Hoff, a National Fitness Expert, is quoted as saying “sitting at a desk also does a number on the back and neck since most folks tend to sit unevenly or hunched with their legs crossed and head at the wrong level. The disks of the spine literally get squashed and muscles of the hips, legs and neck are in odd positions for extended periods of time, adding stress to the body”.
Corporate America is finally starting to take heed of too much sitting and beginning to make changes. Many companies have wellness plans, onsite gyms, encourage healthy eating, allow for more breaks, use ergonomic furniture, or even use items such as treadmill desks. The DSD Business Systems office in Lancaster, PA uses a treadmill desk. General Manager, Amir Friedman mentioned that in a 2013 interview that he walks an average of 4 miles a day while working. (Photo above of the treadmill desk in the Lancaster office)
Move, Stretch, Repeat
I’m sharing several of my favorite exercises to do in the workplace. Try it for a week and see if you start to feel better and refreshed throughout the day. Like the Dr. Pepper commercial used to say, “Get your fix at 10, 2 and 4”. Pick 3-4 of the stretches below and do them at 10 am, 2 pm and 4 pm.
Standing Exercises
Leg Kicks: Stand with one leg straight and try to kick your buttocks with the other. Do 10 kicks on each side.
Desk pushups: First make sure your desk or workstation can support your weight. Stand up, put your hands on your desk, walk backward several steps and then do push-ups against the desk. Repeat 15 times.
Reach for the Sky: Stand tall, reach both arms over head and reach for the sky. Hold for 5-10 seconds. Repeat 5 times. This can be done in a seated position as well.
Shoulder stretch: Find a doorway and put one arm on each side of the doorway. Step back slightly and feel the stretch. Or do one arm at a time holding on to a cubicle wall or other sturdy surface. Hold 20 seconds. Repeat 3 times.
Wrist Stretch: Standing up, place palms on your desk, with fingers pointing toward you. Slowly lower your body down until you feel the stretch (won’t be far), hold 15 seconds. Repeat as needed thru the day. ++ Many articles say this stretch can help you avoid carpel tunnel syndrome ++
Seated Exercises
Shoulder Roll: Roll both shoulders forward and then backward. Repeat 10 times in each direction.
Shoulder Blade Stretch: Sit up straight in a chair and try to touch your shoulder blades together, hold for 5-10 seconds. Repeat 5 times.
Head and Neck Roll: Do several head rolls in each direction, then roll your neck so that your right ear tries to touch your right shoulder, using your right hand, press your head down lightly. Hold for 10 seconds. Switch and repeat on the left side. Repeat 3 times on each side.
Leg Stretch: Straighten one or both legs out in front of you, hold 5 seconds, lower legs without letting your feet touch the ground. Repeat 10-15 times.
Spinal Stretch: Sit tall in your chair, put your left hand on your desk and grab the back of your chair with your right hand, twisting to the right. Hold for 10 seconds. Repeat 3 times on each side.
Don’t worry about looking silly in front of co-workers, heck get them to join you.
In addition to these exercises, here are other things you can do on a daily basis to get moving:
- Take the stairs, not the elevator
- Walk to a co-workers desk to relay a message instead of emailing
- Do lunges to the copy machine to retrieve papers
- Take a quick walk around the parking lot in the morning and afternoon
- Encourage your next department meeting to be a “walking or standing” meeting. Take your meeting outside and walk around the courtyard or parking lot. For a standing meeting, everyone has to stand the entire meeting. The meeting will most likely stay on track, with fewer tangents and be completed earlier.
- Drink lots of water during the day. If nothing else, this will make you take several walking trips to the restroom.
As part of my research for this blog, I scheduled in recurring “appointments” twice a day to get up and move. I also sent my printing to the shared copier and got up to walk and retrieve my printing, rather than using the printer at my workstation. Ok, I confess this was not part of my original plan, my printer died during this time, which happened to fit in well with my research. I must say that I felt better at the end of the week and less tense. None of my co-workers laughed at me either, that might be because I sit in a row of cubicles by myself, so they couldn’t see me anyway. Now that you’ve finished reading this, get up and move, stretch, repeat!
Written by Melissa Secody, Accounting Manager at DSD Business Systems
