The Impact of Sitting All Day – Part 6
Studies have shown that an alert body and active lifestyle boosts not just productivity, but also happiness and satisfaction levels. There is now an explosion of research studies that demonstrate the harmful effects of sitting all day, which I have covered in past blog posts.
- the impact on muscles (in part 1)
- the general impact on the body (in part 2)
- the impact on your heart and the increase risk of cardiovascular disease (in part 3)
- the increased risk of certain cancers (in part 4)
In my last blog post, “Taking a Break“, I explored the reasons for taking a break and looked at the latest research on the length of break you need to take and the frequency.
So now I want to focus on strategies to get you moving…
Use an Exercise Ball for a Chair
Unlike sitting in a chair, sitting on a exercise ball engages your core muscles and helps improve your balance & flexibility. Occasionally bouncing can also help your body interact with gravity to a greater degree than sitting on a stationary chair.
Use the Stairs
Walk up and down stairs, rather than take the lifts. Even if you only walk up or down one flight of stairs and then take the lift the rest of the way it will have a positive impact on your health.
Walk & Talk Meeting
If you have an informal meeting with a colleague why not suggest a walk & talk meeting, weather permitting you could always go outside and get some fresh air too!
Pedometer
Using a pedometer will help you asses how many steps you take throughout the day. Taking a roundabout way to your desk, taking the stairs or walking to the next tube station as part of your commute will help you increase the number of steps you take daily.
Exercise while you Sit at your desk
An Amercian start up company, FitnessCubed, has come up with Cubii, an under-desk elliptical trainer that allows you to do basic exercise while you sit at a standard office desk. (It requires no changes to your existing desk set up.) They have also produced a mobile app that allows you to track your workout and you can also share your work out results – so you could even hold an inter-office competition.
Related Posts

What is NMT or Neuromuscular Technique?
NMT (Neuromuscular Technique) is a soft tissue technique developed in the 1930's by Dr Stanley Lief. NMT is the application of quasi-static pressure perpendicular to the skin with the aim of releasing pain and tension in muscles (normally in skeletal muscles). Neuromuscular Technique is used by
- Physiotherapists
- Osteopaths
- Chiropractors
- Massage Therapists
- muscle spasms
- muscle tension
- aches & pains
- trigger points

So you thought you knew what causes hardening of arteries … think again
The standard theory of heart disease states that fatty foods cause the arteries to "clog up" and narrow, which is a major feature of cardiovascular disease. Researchers have discovered that a lack of sleep seem to have more to do with hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) than a fatty diet. Not getting enough sleep on a regular basis can cause a buildup of plaque in the arteries, which causes them to stiffen and eventually close. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital now think that hardening of arteries has more to do with a "neuro-immune axis" linking sleep to the cardiovascular system. Sleep helps regulate the production of inflammatory cells and maintain healthy blood vessels, and so it would follow that lack of sleep has the reverse effect. The researchers demonstrated the effect on a group of laboratory mice. Although the cholesteral levels of sleep deprived ice remained the same, they developed larger arterial plaques and had double the number of inflammatory cells known to contribute to hardening of arteries. Reference Tall AR, Jelic S. How broken sleep promotes cardiovascular disease. Nature. 2019 Feb;566(7744):329-330

