About six years ago, i worked in an office where my boomingly loud cubicle mate would take his phone calls standing up to avoid, as he said, "a flat, flabby ass." Though it made me and my neighbors want to kick him in the aforementioned body pare, it turns out he was onto something more than just maintaining a bootylicious butt.
If you spend all day sitting at a desk, like the majority of american workers do, what you suspected all along is true, your job could in fact be killing you.
Research shows that the amount of time you spend sitting or lying down is strongly connected to you risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes and an early demise. Even worse, meeting the federal guidelines for exercise (30 minutes a day of moderate activity) doesn't really help much if the rest of your day looks like this (give or take the lute).
Basically, those of us who spend more than 23 hours a week in sedentary positions have a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who sit on their duffs for 11 hours or less a week. The reason: when sitting for long periods of time, your brain tells the body to shut down. Your metabolism slows down, your body stops burning fat. In a word, it's ugly.
I work from home, hunched over a computer for must hours of the day -- alone. My commute involves a few steps from my bedroom to my office, and i have no one beckoning me to meetings throughout the dat. I also hate to be interrupted especially by my bladder. I've even been known to avoid drinking water cracked lips, dry throat and all if it means i don't have to move until my assignment is done. In a nutshell, i'm effed, and probably already half-dead. Which is way i've been trying to talk my husband into letting me get a $2,500 treadmill desk. So far, despite my pleas from the deathtrap formerly known as my desk, he's bot biting.
So, what's an ambitious working girl who routinely logs 50 hours a week in front of her computer supposed to do? Well, don't take this information lying down. Instead, become that annoying coworker who can't sit still for an hour. Researchers have found that taking one-minute breaks that activate your muscles at least once an hour will keep your body from falling into a vegetative state. Do a Jit, walk around the office, refill your water bottle or be the crazy colleague who does planks in the hallway. Or, use a stability ball as a chair to help engage your core.