As people go throughout their day, they spend much of it sitting. The time we spend driving, working on our computers, and watching TV amounts to us spending the majority of our day in a sedentary state. This high level of sedentary behavior can lead to rather unsavory health issues. Luckily, we have found that there may be ways we can try to combat this. Through studies, researchers have seen a relationship of improved health in people who break up their stationary time with short periods of standing or light exercise (Benatti & Ried-Larsen, 2015). While this topic has not been fully explored, there is great evidence that breaking up prolonged periods of sitting is beneficial for your health.
One easy way to implement breaking up your sedentary time would be to take a small two minute break every twenty minutes. With this time, you can stand or walk around, although research shows that light intensity exercise during these breaks can be more beneficial to health than solely taking a break to stand (Bailey & Locke, 2015).
Through many studies, breaking up periods of prolonged sitting have been associated with positive improvements in metabolic outcomes, meaning that by breaking up sitting time, your body can process energy more effectively (Benatti & Ried-Larsen, 2015). For example, participating in light intensity exercise between periods of sitting has shown a positive relationship with lowering glucose levels after meals (Bailey & Locke, 2015). With further investigation this could be great news for those that suffer from type II diabetes, which is a disease that impacts a person’s ability to lower their glucose levels on their own.
At the end of the day, taking small breaks to walk around can benefit your health greatly. With such an easy task, it is the perfect stepping stone to start improving your health.
References
Bailey, D., & Locke, C. (2014). Breaking up prolonged sitting with light-intensity walking improves postprandial glycemia, but breaking up sitting with standing does not. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 18(3), 294–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2014.03.008
Benatti, F., & Ried-Larsen, M. (2015). The effects of breaking up prolonged sitting time: A review of experimental studies. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 47(10), 2053–2061. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000000654