
Excerise cannot undo effects of prolonged sitting - astdb
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/08/the-new-exercise-mantra/495908/?single_page=true
======
upofadown
Refuting the HN headline with a quote from the article:

>Last month in The Lancet, researchers tested whether any amount of exercise
could ameliorate the risk of premature death that comes with sitting for eight
hours a day. Their epidemiological analysis found that 60 to 75 minutes of
concerted daily exercise might to the trick.

~~~
PeterWhittaker
Refutes the headline? Only if you failed to RTFA. There are two critical
points.

Point the first, and IMHO the most important, is the rest of the paragraph
that makes the "60 to 75 minutes" statement: _the people weren’t necessarily
healthy, just alive_.

In other words, the exercise was sufficient to reduce risks of mortality, but
insufficient to actually improve health.

That's a damning condemnation of the effects of excessive sitting if ever I've
read one: Sit too long and your health is pooched, even if you exercise enough
to survive.

Point the second, the writer points out that exercise recommendations are a
balance between what will bring the most benefit and what (most) people will
actually do. Very few people will exercise 60 to 75 minutes a day...

...and I suspect that if they knew that that amount of exercise would have
positive survival benefit but negligible health benefit they'd say to hell
with it, and just keep sitting.

Hence explicit and implicit recommendations from the article: Exercise 150
minutes a week (more if you can), sit less (a lot less).

~~~
upofadown
>the people weren’t necessarily healthy, just alive.

Well, yes, when you do a study based on mortality you get a result based on
mortality rate. For all we know all the other studies mentioned in the article
were also based on mortality. The article was being a bit dishonest by
implying that mortality rate is a bad metric without addressing the issue of
why that might be so in this case.

The actual point is, as you point out, that sitting is bad. The headline is
still wrong and pointlessly so.

------
jseliger
A while ago I got a sit-stand desk:
[http://jakeseliger.com/2015/01/24/geekdesk-max-sit-stand-
des...](http://jakeseliger.com/2015/01/24/geekdesk-max-sit-stand-desk-review-
two-years-with-a-motorized-desk/) and it's been great. I'd never willingly go
back to full-time sitting.

Even apart from whatever health benefits accrue, switching between sitting and
standing to work feels much better than sitting alone.

~~~
enobrev
I recently got one as well. I haven't used it long enough to report much about
health benefits, but I absolutely enjoy standing up while keeping focused. The
one I found is FAR more affordable than the others with similar quality /
features, even with all the bells and whistles (automated, memory settings,
stylish desktop, tall enough for me at 6.6").

Only problem was that it took about 2-3 months to get here. But they were
always responsive when I asked about the delivery schedule. All-in-all, it was
absolutely worth the wait.

[https://www.autonomous.ai/smartdesk-sit-to-stand-height-
adju...](https://www.autonomous.ai/smartdesk-sit-to-stand-height-adjustable-
standing-desk)

\- I have nothing to do with this company except as a fan of my desk.

------
samuell
Much the same as the main message (as I remember) of the "The Healthy
Programmer" book (which you should totally read by the way ... most
researched, elaborate and "balanced" (AFAIS) reading on the topic I've came
across).

[https://pragprog.com/book/jkthp/the-healthy-
programmer](https://pragprog.com/book/jkthp/the-healthy-programmer)

------
lwhalen
Eat right, exercise, achieve healthiness, die anyway. We're all food for
worms, boys, and any action we take now will certainly be found (in the
fullness of time) to be deleterious. It's a matter of balancing what set of
regrets we can live with the most. At the end of our run we still have to give
our atoms back, and the universe will continue to turn.

------
hexagonc
I wasn't sure from the article how specific they were about sitting. Are all
types of sitting equally harmful? Does the chair matter? Does posture matter?
According to the article, the primary conclusion of the health experts is that
you should sit less and "move" more, where "move" means anything that
"increases your metabolism 1.5 times that of being absolutely still". What
about fidgeting while sitting? When working on a problem, especially when
excited, I tend to bounce my legs while sitting. I wonder how much that
increases my metabolism.

I read somewhere that standing alone burns about 20 calories per hour. That
doesn't seem like much but according to the article, this slow burn is
necessary and somehow promotes heart health in a way that is not matched by
sitting for an hour and then burning far more calories later.

------
grondilu
Question : is laying worse than sitting?

~~~
naveen99
In this context, laying 14 hours a day in addition to sleeping ? Yes it's
worse than sitting. Only thing worse would be being in zero gravity ;)

Exercise, eating, laying flat when not exercising or eating all day is not
worse.

~~~
intradasted

      Yes it's worse
    
      Exercise, eating, laying flat when 
      not exercising or eating all day is 
      not worse.
    

Wait, what?

------
pyre
With all of these studies on the affects of "sitting," I'm curious if there is
any distinction made between "passive sitting" and "active sitting." E.g. a
yoga ball vs. a chair. If you are sitting in a position that forces you to
work muscles, is that only marginally better?

~~~
et-al
The study seems to focus on cardiovascular health and not so much muscular
dystrophy and posture. Also, have you seen people sit on yoga balls? Most of
them end up leaning on the table for support.

I don't doubt sitting with good posture is helpful, but the main thrust of
this study is to tell people to _move_. Get up every 15-20 minutes to pace, go
take that walk around the block, take the stairs, walk home if you can.

------
dopu
I dream of the day that I can program while backpacking through the
Appalachians.

Also, title should be fixed -- "Excerise" -> "Exercise".

~~~
loader
Oh man, Wandercoding, I'm sold.

~~~
contingencies
BBIAB. Gone codeabout.

------
angryteabag
For a developer without the luxury of a standing desk, what alternatives do I
have?

~~~
douche
Cinderblocks. I went to Home Depot, spent $5, and jacked my desk up 18". I
figured I'd take a flier on the standing desk idea, but it's working out so
well that I don't think I'll bother with anything fancier.

Some kind of an anti-fatigue mat is kind of a must if you're standing on a
hard surface. You don't have to go big on that necessarily, either - mine came
from the home goods aisle at Wal-Mart.

~~~
angryteabag
I mean, I work as a developer at a company - so I can't get them to raise the
desk for me or turn up with cinder blocks

~~~
kwhitefoot
> or turn up with cinder blocks

Why not?

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ben_utzer
Excerise? Ex cerise.

