Are you sitting down? Don’t! It could kill you—or not. Recent studies show sitting more than six hours a day puts you on a potentially deadly track, even if you regularly exercise! That’s not good news, considering Americans sit, on average, about nine hours a day. A report by Medical Billing and Coding.com shows that when we sit, especially for long periods of time, our bodies tend to shut down or reduce certain normal physical processes, which could help lead the average office worker to an early death, or at the very least, lead to an earlier death than if their job involved standing or walking for most of their workday. Endocrinologist Dr. James Levine at the Mayo Clinic makes an alarming comparison, “The trick, the trick, the trick, is to have it in here (pointing to his brain) that sitting is the new smoking—that sitting is literally bad for you.”
For 15 years, Dr. Levine has studied the grim consequences of spending too much time sitting. He warns his patients, “People who sit for a prolonged period of time throughout the day are predisposed to developing diabetes, and those people who have diabetes, their diabetes gets worse.” And you can add to that increased blood pressure, obesity and more.
Dr. Levine continues, “People who sit more are more prone to cancers, breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon, I mean, multiple cancers. In addition, they’re more prone to depression, to feeling blue. Even people who have mental illness, their illness is actually worse.” In search for potential solutions, Dr. Levine has worked with numerous companies over the years to improve employee health. Seeing the need for healthy alternatives to constant sitting at work led Levine to inventing the combination treadmill-desk. At about $3,500, this steel-case walk-station is the gold standard, but there are less costly alternatives on The opinions presented here or on the market that could work for you if you already have a treadmill. Dietician Jill Weisenberger found a more affordable solution for her situation, “I was sitting for hours and hours, sometimes for 10 or so hours and I just know all that sitting is bad for you.” Weisenberger works out of her home and spent just $500 for what’s called a “Trek Desk.” It fits over the treadmill she already had. She happily reports, “Ever since I got the desk I don’t complain about back pain and I’m much more comfortable.” She keeps her pace at just 1.4 miles an hour so she can concentrate without getting sweaty or out of breath. Weisenberger adds, “I could be on it for 3 to 7 hours, and so I almost always walk about 30-some miles a week.”
There are other solutions, especially for the DIY types. Dorothy Schulte, who works at CBN, figured out a way to avoid sitting all day by making a stand-up desk. For just $35, she simply attached two blocks of wood to the bottom of her regular desk and replaced her chair with a bar stool. After using the homemade stand-up desk, Schulte says, “I noticed a lot of the back pain went away, I was a lot less tired at the end of the day.” Schulte adds, “I don’t stand the whole day, constantly; I’ll probably go back and forth 30, 45 minutes at a time.”
Lorie Johnson encourages her viewers, “If you can’t walk or stand at your desk, don’t worry, there are still lots of things you can do to minimise the health hazards of a desk job.” We’ve all heard the recommendations to take the stairs instead of the elevator and park far away from your building (keeping safety as our first priority), and to walk at lunchtime. Some other ideas include using a portable stair-stepper. Dr. Levine recommends that his patients slide it under the desk so when the phone rings it is easy to pull it out and start stepping while conversing. You can also set an alarm as a reminder to take a lap or two around your work area. According to Levine, “People get as much or potentially more benefit from being up and walking a little bit every hour than going to the gym 3 times a week.” Other small steps that could hold great benefit at work are to choose the printer that is the furthest from your desk and instead of emailing a co-worker, walk over to them.
Dr. Levine adds, “I’d say the number one item, and we’ve deployed this in over 60 corporations in the United States, is walk-and-talk meetings.” Once you incorporate a few new anti-sitting techniques into your day, how can you tell if you are getting enough movement? Lorie Johnson reports, “A good way to measure how you’re doing is to wear a pedometer, which keeps track of how many steps you’re taking. A good goal is 10,000 a day.”