Sitting for long periods is seen as a major health risk. But sitting and being still are two different things. Can you limit the negative effects of sitting by moving a lot while sitting?
Sitting bad for health
Sitting is bad for health in several ways. A large part of the adverse effects is achieved by the lack of movement during sitting. Consequences of this can include weight gain and all the related consequences. Think of reduced insulin sensitivity (a precursor to diabetes), among other things. In addition, we previously wrote about a sort of internal scale in the legs. When these register a lot of weight, the burning can be increased to balance it out. However, during sitting, this weight is incorrectly (too low) estimated, which can actually lead to weight gain. Finally, limited blood flow can also cause dangerous complications such as stiffening arteries and increased blood pressure.‘Dynamic sitting’
However, you don’t have to stand to move. Moreover, researchers increasingly agree that any movement is positive, no matter how small. You can therefore question to what extent the negative effects of sitting can be prevented by moving while sitting. For example, by alternately lifting your heels, or any other movement. This ‘dynamic sitting’ also burns calories. One of the studies that should demonstrate this, I personally don’t find very informative. In 2017, researchers discovered that you can increase calorie consumption during a day at the office by 20 percent [1]. The ‘only’ thing that needed to be done for this was an adjustment of the desk with pedals to pedal on. That this form of dynamic sitting increases consumption was not exactly world news. That principle is called ‘cycling’ and has been known for a while, I think.Can’t sit still
What I find more interesting is to look at other examples of ‘dynamic’, or ‘restless’ sitting. In an experiment from 2016, young volunteers were asked to sit for three hours [2]. One foot had to be kept still while the other foot was moved every few minutes. A bell reminded the participants to move their foot. After three hours, blood flow was measured. It turned out to be lower in the still-held leg than at the beginning. In the leg of the moving foot, it had actually increased.We were surprised by the magnitude of the difference Jaume Padilla, University of MissouriUnfortunately, the number of burned calories was not investigated. This was also not possible in the setup where the difference between the two legs of one person was measured. It would have been nice if the experiment had been conducted twice. Another three hours of sitting still, but then really still vs. three hours of moving both feet every so often. Then the calorie consumption in both situations could be compared.
Still, get up and move
For blood flow, it can therefore make a difference if you keep moving your legs while sitting. I think this tip is more practical if you’re stuck in a church bench or airplane seat than at work. At work, you’re normally working. While I’m typing this, for example, I’m not thinking about moving my legs even though that’s what I’m writing about. If I were still working at the AMC and busy with care processes, I wouldn’t even think about moving my legs every few minutes. An alarm reminding me to do so, as in the study, seems quite annoying. I also used to get annoyed by RSI software that caused my mouse to stop working after a certain time. If I were worried about my blood pressure from sitting, I would just get up more often. Just take a walk. Or do some stairs, apparently also a good way to lower your blood pressure.References
- Koepp GA, Moore G, Levine JA. An Under-the-Table Leg-Movement Apparatus and Changes in Energy Expenditure. Front Physiol. 2017 May 18;8:318. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00318. eCollection 2017. PubMed PMID: 28572774; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5435803.
- Prolonged sitting-induced leg endothelial dysfunction is prevented by fidgeting Takuma Morishima, Robert M. Restaino, Lauren K. Walsh, Jill A. Kanaley, Paul J. Fadel, and Jaume Padilla American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology 2016 311:1, H177-H182
