You might stand up and do a few stretches when you work from home, but would you sink into a lunge at the office? Genevieve Healy wouldn’t hesitate – but that’s because her own job involves changing workplace culture to reduce sitting.
“In meetings I’ll alternate sitting and standing, and with meetings of just one or two people, I’ll make it a walking meeting. I do emails standing up – a sit-stand desk makes it easy to change position - and I might do calf raises while I’m standing,” says Healy, lead researcher of BeUpstanding, a free program based at the University of Queensland to help organisations nudge deskbound staff into sitting less.
In a perfect world, our working days would involve no more than five hours sitting, we’d all have a sit-stand desk, there’d be more reasons to move – like using printers located away from our desks – and we’d prioritise a walk at lunchtime, says Professor David Dunstan, Head of the Baker-Deakin Department of Lifestyle and Diabetes in Melbourne.
“Standing doesn’t deliver the same benefits as moving does but it’s an improvement. The advantage over sitting is that it increases blood flow and engages postural muscles that keep us upright – these muscles aren’t switched on when we sit,” he says.“Changing posture throughout the day is essential for preventing musculo-skeletal problems including back pain,” explains Dunstan who sets a timer prodding him to stand up and move every 30 minutes.
Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)
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