Sitting behind a desk for the workday in corporate America is just part of the job. So long as we’re supported by a comfy chair that helps us get our workday tasks done with relative ease and minimal strain on the back, it’s hard to imagine many occupational hazards to concern ourselves with until we leave the office. Not so say Swedish medical researchers. Turns out, sitting is the silent killer.
Aside from putting ourselves at a higher risk for obesity and diabetes, the longer we stay in sitting mode, say the Swedes, the worse off we are in the long run. Doctors at the Karolinska Institute and Swedish School of Sport and Health recently submitted the results of their study to Swedish health officials who quickly designed a series of elaborate exercise programs to keep working Swedes in tip-top shape.
Swedish guidelines now call for individuals to “take regular 5-minute breaks during a working day that is spent behind a desk,” and engage in “a minimum of 2.5 hours of physical activity off the clock to stay fit and healthy,” reads the recommendation.
Perhaps the most mind-warping concept for Americans to embrace in the study is our notion of “sedentary.” For years, U.S. health officials have forged such a strong bond between this relatively benign word and a visual of the mid-life couch potato husband who spends the majority of his off-hours on the couch at home. The Swedish sitting study makes the typical couch potato look like a blob of Play Dough in comparison.
“In the demanding and stressful society of the present, to prescribe these low and minimally time-consuming efforts may encourage many people with problems in maintaining a sufficient level of exercise,” the doctors wrote. “Encouragingly, research has shown that simple forms of individualized physical activity in clinical practice has had a beneficial impact on exercise level as well as sedentary time.”
If that wasn’t enough to get you outta your chair, consider the fact that our American counterparts in the healthcare and medical insurance industry have warned us against deep vein thrombosis — essentially a blood clot that forms and pools most often in the leg when we sit for long periods of time. If you sit in the same position without moving around much for as little as three hours, some people are susceptible to sudden blood clots that could launch quickly into the lungs and cause a fatal heart attack.
Considering the Swedish are amongst the healthiest people in the world, following their lead is probably a safe bet.
