How to move more at work without getting side-eyed
Compared to our hunter gatherer ancestors, the modern humans have become quite sedentary. Sedentary behaviour, defined as any activity done sitting, lying or reclining with low energy expenditure, occurs across the day and across multiple settings, including the workplace. However, this increase in prolonged, uninterrupted sedentary behaviour can have multiple detrimental impacts in both the short and long term, with high levels of sedentary time associated with cardiometabolic disease, earlier deaths due to any cause, cancer, diabetes, obesity, hypertension and more! Given over 80% of Australian workers report sitting for at least some of their workday, effective workplace interventions that break up sedentary time are needed to protect workers against the many health risks of prolonged sedentary time. Are bodyweight resistance exercise breaks the solution? One possible intervention is the use of resistance exercise. Laboratory studies have shown that resistance exercises that can be done at the desk, like calf raises and half squats, can be beneficial for glucose control. Rogers and colleagues took this concept into the workplace in their recent study that investigated the acceptability and feasibility of bodyweight resistance exercise breaks in the work place to reduce sedentary behaviour. The effects of these breaks on perceived sleepiness,…
