Only 2 mins of Walking after Prolonged Sitting has Major Health Benefits

Sitting for an extended period, it seems, is bad for overall health and life expectancy. As I will write about the harms of sitting in this post, it is important to acknowledge the value of sitting in our lives. When we socially engage in a coffee shop with our friends, sitting has a strong social value. When we sit for a few minutes after a long day of work, sitting helps our bodies recover. Sitting becomes problematic when it is maintained over a longer period. Although not set in stone, more than 30 mins of sitting is considered to be “prolonged sitting” by many experts.

Prolonged Sitting Leads to Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health Risks Comparable to Smoking and Obesity

here is an ongoing discussion among experts and scientists about how much of sitting is too much, and what the intensity, duration and frequency of breaks should look like. However, multiple recent studies have found that sitting greater than one hour in duration uninterrupted can lead to significant harms to our general, metabolic and musculoskeletal health. A number of experiments have shown that prolonged sitting results in higher levels of insulin, lipids and glucose in our body. For example, Dunstan et al, 2012 found that prolonged sitting leads to increases in insulin and glucose levels comparable to type II diabetes. Moreover, Prolonged sitting causes increased pressure and strain on blood vessels, potentially leading to inflammation and atherosclerosis (Healy et a, 2015).  T

The Good News

The good news is that very short breaks of normal walking can help reverse these harms. For example, if you perform only 2 mins of light walking (3.2 km/h on level ground) after every 20 mins of sitting, you can avoid the increases of glucose and insulin in your body (Dunstan et al, 2012). Similarly, researchers have also found that a combination of sitting and standing is important for overall metabolic and musculoskeletal health. The parameters of how much time should be spent between sitting and standing is not clear in literature. However, a reduction of 2 hours/day in total sitting time in those who were sitting greater than 6 hours/day led to significant reduction of glucose and insulin levels (Healy et al, 2015). In other words, those who spent 2 hours more time in standing than in sitting during their days had a superior metabolic health and were at reduced risk of developing type II diabetes and obesity.

Prolonged Standing is not Good either..

It is important to note that standing for an extended period is not healthy either. A large study of several thousand workers in Ontario found that workers who were predominantly standing during their work shift had double the risk of cardiovascular diseases (Smith, 2018). The mechanism of why too much standing can be harmful is related to pooling of blood to lower limbs, increases of hydrostatic venous pressure and enhancement of oxidative stress.  Therefore, alternating between sitting and standing might be healthier than maintaining either one of them over a longer period.

Take Home Message

The idea is to change positions and not maintain one position for longer than 30 minutes. Find creative ways in your daily routine to break down sitting habits.  For example, if you are watching TV, stand up every commercial break and walk around or perform a couple of stretches. If you are sitting in a meeting, get up for a standing break or a stretch break. The idea is to make standing breaks and walking breaks part of a healthy culture and norm.

Neumann, MScPT, BSc Biomedical Sciences

References

Dunstan DW, Kingwell BA, Larsen R et al (2012) Breaking up prolonged sitting reduces postprandial glucose and insulin responses. Diabetes Care 35:976–983

Healy, G. N., Winkler, E. A., Owen, N., Anuradha, S., & Dunstan, D. W. (2015). Replacing sitting time with standing or stepping: associations with cardio-metabolic risk biomarkers. European heart journal, 36(39), 2643-2649.

Smith, P., Ma, H., Glazier, R. H., Gilbert-Ouimet, M., & Mustard, C. (2018). The relationship between occupational standing and sitting and incident heart disease over a 12-year period in Ontario, Canada. American journal of epidemiology, 187(1), 27-33