You don't even need a full workout—just walking to the water cooler can help.
You’ve heard it before: Sitting all day isn’t good for you. Sure it causes back pain, but studies have also linked sedentary time with diabetes, heart problems, kidney disease, and more. But the good news is, getting up every now and then could do major things for your health.
For one week, 7,985 adults 45 and older wore devices that could track when they went from sitting (or standing still) to walking. On average, the participants were sedentary for more than 12 hours a day—yikes. Researchers followed up with those volunteers for another four years, and 340 of the participants died during that time.
Across the board, sitting was linked with bad health results. Those who had spent more than 13 hours a day staying still and tended to go at least an hour without moving were at the highest risk of dying early, according to the results in Annals of Internal Medicine. But before you start stressing about your desk job, know there’s a good way to fight against the health risks.
Even if you don’t have time for a full walk, just getting up for a moment could lower your risk of death. Volunteers who walked around at least every 30 minutes were less likely to have died than those who went longer without moving—even if both spent the same number of total hours sitting. The tracking device couldn’t tell if the participants were sitting or standing still, so it couldn’t show the effects of, say, using a standing desk.
Weirdly enough, regular exercise barely lowered the risk of death among people who went longer than 30 minutes without moving. In other words, squeezing in a long gym session won’t necessarily make up for an entire day of sitting. It’s not just about how much time you spend moving, but how often you do it. See the difference?
Keep up your regular workout routine, but try to get up more during the rest of the day, too. “If you have a job or lifestyle where you have to sit for prolonged periods of time, we suggest taking a movement break every half hour,” lead researcher Keith Diaz, PhD, said in a statement. “This one behavior change could reduce your risk of death, although we don’t yet know precisely how much activity is optimal.”