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Tips from the longest-living populations in the world
‘The Blue Zones’ are populations that experience longer, healthier and fuller lives. You might have heard of some of these before, as scientists love to study their behaviours to try to understand what contributes to their longevity. The Blue Zones include Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, Ikaria in Greece, The Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica and Loma Linda in California, where people are three times more likely to live to 100 than Australians. People living in Blue Zones enjoy much longer lives and lower rates of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and dementia compared to that seen in the Western world – Tim Crowe, Associate Professor in Nutrition at Deakin University And what is common amongst the people of The Blue Zones? They lead naturally non-sedentary lives, often moving every 30 minutes or so. While Australians understand the need for exercise, what we aim to do with the BeUpstanding Toolkit is to help people in sedentary jobs move more throughout the day. It’s these small changes to behaviour that can have a big impact on health and wellbeing!
Scared? Sit Less! A message from our Healthier Workplace WA partners
Our partners over in WA from Healthier Workplaces have produced some great tools for raising awareness around the dangers of too much sitting. We love their SCARED SIT LESS video! We think you will too.
What is sedentary behaviour and how common is it?
Sedentary behaviour refers to any waking activity characterised by low energy expenditure and a sitting or reclining posture. Common sedentary behaviours include sitting while watching television, driving a car or working at your computer. In Australian office workplaces, sitting behaviour is so common that over three-quarters of the work day is spent sitting, with much of this sitting time accrued in long, unbroken bouts of 30 minutes or more.Further, workplace sitting is the largest contributor to an office worker’s overall daily sitting time. We at BeUpstanding™ can see the potential in reducing sitting in Australian workplaces to improve health outcomes, as well as overall wellbeing, for a healthier, happier workforce.
Standing workers
Why the best posture is the next posture!
Of course some sitting is ok – we all need to have a rest – but sitting for long periods of time without getting up may be particularly bad for our health. Regularly changing your posture between sitting, standing and moving is the key: achieving this is the primary aim of BeUpstanding™. Aim to change your posture every 30 minutes.
What happens when we sit for too long?
When you sit you are spending very little energy and your large postural muscles aren’t working very hard. This means your metabolism starts to slow down which can lead to poor health outcomes in both the short and long term. Too much sitting has been linked to an increased number of musculoskeletal conditions, as well as increased risk of overweight or obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, some cancers and premature death. Time to stand up?
3 BeUpstanding™ strategies to gain momentum for change
In late 2015 we ran a pilot study to test and refine the BeUpstanding toolkit that you see today. Along the way, we heard some really inspiring stories from people who created their own strategies to BeUpstanding™ in their workplace — some that were simple, some that were quirky, some that were straight up genius! Here are 3 strategies for a little inspiration. The 3 o’clock Mexican Wave One workplace we partnered with adopted a 3 PM office-wide Mexican wave to get their staff on their feet. It’s something everyone takes part in, and never fails to crack some smiles! The stairs of gratitude Our friends at a busy studio in Melbourne reside on the sixth floor of their office building. They instated a challenge to walk the stairs once a day, and on each floor people gave thanks for something they were grateful for in their life. The shake it off One workplace that dealt with a lot of customer complaints encouraged an office-wide policy to stand up and shake it off after every phone call. Staff reported a lift in their feelings of resilience and overall stress.
Consider your activity across the whole day
It is well recognised that doing regular exercise has several benefits for your physical and mental health. We should all be aiming to meet physical activity guidelines of at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity each day. However, for most adults, exercise constitutes only a small proportion of the day – it is also important to think about the rest of the day. If you spend most of the rest of the time sitting, you may be increasing your risk for poor health. Time to stand up?
Feeling foggy? It might be time to get up…
The following article was published in The Conversation on July 27th, 2017. Could too much sitting be bad for our brains? Sitting affects our glucose levels, which affects our brain. Unsplash/Andrew Branch, CC BY-SA Michael Wheeler, University of Western Australia; Daniel Green, University of Western Australia; David Dunstan, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, and Paul Gardiner, The University of Queensland In many aspects of life where we need to use our brain power, we also tend to sit down: at school, at work, sitting exams or concentrating on a crossword. In a new paper, we explore how prolonged sitting may affect the brain’s fuel supply and have a negative impact on brain health. The brain is a glucose hungry organ. It weighs about 2% of body mass but demands about 20% of our resting energy requirements, which is mostly in the form of glucose, the primary brain fuel. If this energy supply is disrupted it can impair and even damage brain cells. Therefore, the availability of glucose to brain cells may have implications for brain health. Exposure of the brain to both high glucose levels and low glucose levels can increase the risk of developing dementia. Also, switching between a…
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Top tips from Champions for Champions
We asked Workplace Champions for their top tips to running BeUpstanding™ and here’s what they said… Don’t do it alone! Make sure you have a support network of other keen staff members who can step in to help you, especially during busy periods or when you are away. Be creative and try to have fun. Staff respond well to innovative and fun ideas. The more fun you have running the program, the more likely staff will follow your lead. Don’t be disheartened by nay-sayers. There’s usually at least one or two general and/ or management level staff who are skeptical or unwilling to make changes. Try not to let their voices be the loudest in the crowd. Print out the program overview to help you stay on track and tick off the steps as you go so that you remember where you are up to. Regular reminders in your calendar prompting you to go back into the Toolkit can help make sure you don’t lose momentum. Think about regular ‘re-launches’ and ways to keep people motivated (like themed morning teas, quizzes, competitions and challenges). Perseverance is the key…and you’ll slowly start seeing that standing up, sitting less and moving more…