What do you mean an hour at the gym doesn't counteract a sedentary job?

I read The Hazards of the Couch by Roni Caryn Rabin in the New York Times on January 12th and it's been haunting me since. The gist of the article is that the amount of time we spend sitting can have an "overwhelming, seemingly irreparable impact on one’s health that physical activity doesn’t produce much benefit." This is not good news for me. I commute 25 miles to work in DC area traffic each day and then I spend most of my day sitting in meetings or at my desk. I've been counting on my daily exercise regimen to balance out all this sitting.


Since reading the article, I've gone back to wearing my Fitbit. I put my Mac on my desk and hit refresh on my Fitbit window from time to time during the work day. When I see a long stretch of grey, I think of a reason to run up the stairs to the 4th floor.

I guess we need to be thinking more about ways to incorporate movement throughout the work day into our wellness programs. Maybe we should take another look at I Move You (formerly Get Up and Move.) Do you have any tricks that help you keep moving during your work day?

Related Post: Can you limit your sitting and sleeping to just 23 and 1/2 hours per day?

Update: This article was in CNN Health on June 24, 2011-- Sitting for hours can shave years off life. This article appeared in Forbes on January 11, 2011 -- Four hours on your computer doubles your risk of heart disease. In the news again on March 27, 2012, with this story from WTOP and some tips from the Mayo Clinic to build more activity into your daily routine. On July 15, 2013, the Washington Post published this article Desk Jobs Can Be Killers, literally.