Every couple of years the media delivers dire news: some apparently harmless aspect of everyday life is in fact conspiring to kill you. Several years ago the culprit was sitting. “Sitting is the new smoking” blared headline after headline atop articles that warned of new scientific findings that showed sitting at your desk all day caused metabolic changes that could put you in an early grave.
But as often happens with health scares, as the years ticked by the message softened. inactivity is indeed terrible for you, but the effects could likely be counteracted by consciously adding more activity into your day.
What’s the antidote to so much sitting?
But how much moving around do you need to undo the damage your chair-based lifestyle is doing to your body? Do you need to invest in a treadmill desk and spend hours using it? Are CrossFit levels of fitness required? Or does standing up every once in a while to grab a snack do the trick?
These are simple questions but deeply important ones for desk jockeys who don’t want to be slowly killed by their chairs. Which is why scientists have been hard at work on the question since the original panic erupted, offering a variety of different takes on how much exercise you should aim for if your job keeps you planted on your butt most of the day. Their efforts are much appreciated, but could we have a single, actionable recommendation, please?
Recently one arrived. Enough data had piled up over the years for scientists to conduct a meta analysis of nine studies looking at the fitness tracker data of 40,000 participants across four countries. These efforts, published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, now offer anxious entrepreneurs a clear answer — 30 to 40 minutes of moderate activity a day is enough to counteract the negative health effects of sitting all day.
