Instead of counting steps, husband and wife fitness trainers Kelly and Juliet Starrett want you to count the number of hours you sit during a day. Ideally, it should be no more than six. In our sedentary workstyle, it’s often higher, and a threat to your health.
By design, they argue, humans are designed to be in motion all day and not necessarily in grand gestures like an hour at the gym or a prework jog. Even just adjusting our position as we sit – fidgeting – has value. We make fun of people who can’t sit still, but they are moving and that’s good, the Starretts believe.
“It’s not so much that sitting is bad as it is that moving is better,” they write in their book Built to Move.
Sitting on the floor, in particular, has benefits for various parts that strain the most when you do it (even if not a position most of us can assume in the office environment). But you are less likely to move while sitting so that’s why they recommend checking how much you sit over a 24-hour period.
They note that studies show women and men who sit more than six hours a day are, respectively, 37 per cent and 18 per cent more likely to die before people who sit less than three hours a day. So if you’re beyond six, set that as a target. If you are seven to nine hours, modest change can get you to the goal; if 10 to 12 hours, substantial changes are needed, but the Starretts have seen many people manage that; and if you are beyond 12 hours, they remind you that you don’t have to change overnight. “It’s not only fine to gradually increase the time you spend on your feet rather than in a chair, it’s also preferable,” they write.
Mixing standing and sitting throughout the day – throughout each hour – is helpful. Standing, they acknowledge, is not movement but it makes you want to move – “in fact, for comfort’s sake, it requires that you move,” they say.
Many people have opted for standing desks or sit-stand desks that can flip between the two options. Indeed, this column started being written sitting but now I’m standing – standing and fidgeting. That fidgeting is not a bad thing – a sign of weakness or inability to cope, an encouragement to return to sitting, but instead what the Starretts say is known in research as “spontaneous physical activity.” Welcome it but at the same time the Starretts advise when setting up a standing desk if the ground below you is too hard you will end up moving to chase comfort and that’s bad. Try a throw rug or exercise mat under your feet or a more cushioned shoe.
They point to a company that installed software locking the workers out of their computers for five minutes each hour to get them out of their chairs. That’s a technique you can voluntarily apply to your own situation. Another leader established a walk/talk/click policy where if you needed to communicate with a colleague you had to walk to their desk and do it in person, only resorting to phone or e-mail if they were too immersed in something. Again, consider applying that approach yourself.
Look for opportunities to stand or move. Walking meetings have become increasingly popular. They note you can stand while waiting for takeout food or while in the examination room when the vet is dealing with your pet. “When you change your mindset about sitting, it gradually becomes less attractive. ‘No I’ll stand’ becomes not a nicety when someone offers you a seat on the bus, but something you actually want to do because it feels good,” they say.
Give it a try.
Quick Hits
- I’ve had some success with portable podiums as an alternative to sitting when reading. I’m still not sure whether positioning one of them next to the couch was wise, getting me off that soft comfy spot, or dumb, a losing position.
- Author James Clear says the difference between how he feels before his first set of exercise routines in the gym and after that set is enormous. You don’t even need a full workout to feel good again, he observes: “You are five minutes away from putting your day on a completely different trajectory.”
- After testing nine AI text-summarizing tools, Charter Works found that Genei, Jasper and ChatGPT Plus were the best, with Genei leading the pack.
- Executive recruiter Gerald Walsh in his newsletter recommends preparing your reference questions in advance, as for interviews. Develop a set of reference questions directly tied to the job requirements and reach out to supervisors and peers who have firsthand knowledge of the candidate’s work history.
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.