7 Ways Sitting Will Kill You

Let's count the ways.

By Shaunacy Ferro Posted 02.25.2013 at 11:00 am 6 Comments

Get Up, Stand Up Dreamstime

This is the one piece of bad news you shouldn't sit down for: Sitting for hours on end, every day, is bad for your health. Sitting at work is bad for you. Sitting after work is bad for you. Sitting is the new smoking, except that the furniture lobby probably isn't as powerful as the tobacco one.

A lot of research has appeared in the last few years as a testament to all that is unholy about our love of office chairs, La-Z Boys, couches and cushions. What's worse: Even a healthy amount of exercise can't save you.

If you work in an office setting, sitting is hard to avoid, unless you're an early adopter of the treadmill desk. You might laze around the house on your days off, but one study found that people spend more time sitting--and do less standing or walking--on work days compared to their leisure days.

You may have lost track of all of the ways that your office job can turn deadly. So as I sit hunched over in my rolling chair in a position that screams "live fast, die young," let's talk about what kind of damage all we, the over-sitters, are in for.

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6 Comments

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Amun-Ra

02/25/13 at 11:35 am

Good article and I hope it motivates people to be more active.

I am interested to see a survey of people's health that has constant active movement in their jobs to show how this compares medically scientifically.

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shutterpod

02/25/13 at 1:01 pm

Well that doesn't sound very good for wheelchair-bound people....

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ppardee

02/25/13 at 2:38 pm

Doomed we are. Die we all must.

I went from eating junk food all day and never exercising but working a job where I was constantly standing to eating right and exercising several times a week, but working a job where I was almost always sitting and still gained 60 pounds and my health has suffered.

In the end, however, we'll all die. And there are plenty of healthy people I work with who sit all day as well. So it's not only the sitting part, but also other lifestyle and aging changes? Something feels off with the concept.

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sdfuiooisdf

02/25/13 at 9:20 pm

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StandingFit

02/27/13 at 1:47 am

A Standing Fit unit is an awesome way to standing at your desk, it cheap & cool.
Great resource for anyone sitting & reading it...probably EVERYONE!

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