I’m happy to see people are doing these studies, but I wasn’t hoping for these results. It turns out that exercising does not make up for the deleterious affects on heart health due to inactivity.
In a study published in May in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, they reported that, to no one’s surprise, the men who sat the most had the greatest risk of heart problems. Men who spent more than 23 hours a week watching TV and sitting in their cars as passengers or as drivers had a 64 percent greater chance of dying from heart disease than those who sat for 11 hours a week or less. What was unexpected was that many of the men who sat long hours and developed heart problems also exercised. Quite a few of them said they did so regularly and led active lifestyles. The men worked out, then sat in cars and in front of televisions for hours, and their risk of heart disease soared, despite the exercise. Their workouts did not counteract the ill effects of sitting.
via Phys Ed: The Men Who Stare at Screens – Well Blog – NYTimes.com
I’m an active person. I enjoy running, cycling, and hiking. But maybe those mobile activities just aren’t enough to keep me safe from the 8+ hours I spend 5 days a week sitting at my desk in the office. I’m not alone–the desk job seems to be the default job in the U.S. in the 21st century.
So, how do we continue to reap the rewards of our technologically advanced, service-based economy, without slowly killing ourselves in the process?
Dr. James Levine, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic, has one possible solution: the treadmill desk.
In 2005, Dr. Levine led a study showing that lean people burn about 350 more calories a day than those who are overweight, by doing ordinary things like fidgeting, pacing or walking to the copier.
To incorporate extra movement into the routines of sedentary workers (himself included), Dr. Levine constructed a treadmill desk by sliding a bedside hospital tray over a $400 treadmill.
Without breaking a sweat, the so-called work-walker can burn an estimated 100 to 130 calories an hour at speeds slower than two miles an hour, Mayo research shows.
Work-walker? I want to be a work-walker. Not only would it be good for my heart and muscles, but it will keep me more-awake after lunch and add variety to my posture position. Sitting hunched over a keyboard for so many hours is terrible for my back and shoulders. Reports also say that walking helps avoid A.D.D.-like distraction.
Now, would I $400o for a Walkstation? No way. Besides the fact that the name sounds like a Sony gas station, that’s way too much for a desk.
Instead, I’m going to pick up a treadmill of Craigslist and attach a desk myself. I already paid for a mechanical engineering degree, anyway. Hell, an engineering degree is practically a license to be a cheap-o and build my own stuff from scratch.
Typing while walking on a treadmill–much safer than texting while walking across a street!
