You hear me say it all the time: to improve your posture, you need to take frequent breaks from sitting to stand up and stretch or take a quick lap around the office.
A new study in the European Heart Journal says the same thing but for different reasons.
Researchers found that prolonged periods of sitting, even in those individuals who also perform moderate or vigorous exercise, is positively associated with worse cardio-metabolic function such as higher levels of triglycerides (an indicator of insulin resistance or pre-Diabetes), C-reactive protein(a blood marker of inflammation), lower levels of HDL cholesterol (the kind we usually need more of) and bigger waist circumference.
BUT! The study also found that even in people who spend a lot of time sitting down, the more often they get up to take breaks, the lower the level of CRP and the smaller their waist circumference!
For the number of breaks in sedentary time, the most significant difference was in waist circumference. The top 25% of people who took the most breaks had an average of 1.6 inches smaller waist circumference than those in the lowest 25%.
Over a one week period, the fewest number of breaks taken was 99 and the largest was over 1,200.
Some practical things you can do are to stand up when on the phone, take a walk to talk to a colleague instead of picking up the phone or emailing them, take the stairs instead of the elevator, and my personal favorite- drink lots of water so that you have to get up and walk to the bathroom (2 birds, 1 stone).
http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/01/08/eurheartj.ehq451.abstract
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110111213031.htm
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