Although much of the research remains “preliminary”…
… several studies suggest that people who spend prolonged periods on their behind are more likely to be overweight, have heart disease or even die.
Soon, every office furniture store in America will be modified with key card operated doors. You simply insert your Obamacare Card that’s embedded with your stimulus-mandated electronic health records into the lock, and if your body mass index is within regulated limits, the door will open and you can purchase a chair!
DOH!
That’s the value of government research grants…
The surprise in this research is the very troubling claim that regular exercise does not protect those who sit long hours each day—at work, in the car, on the couch—from increased risk of heart attack.
Yeah DOH………
Blatantly Obvious without doubt.
Medical journals must be bulging with stuff about the many dangerous complications from forced inactivity such as being in traction. Respiratory complications are common.
Yes, but this does not establish cause and effect. A large European study was designed to examne cause and effect in childhood obesity and inactivity and concluded obesity causes inactivity and it is not the case that inactivity causes obesity. This confirms what many researchers of human metabolism have been hypothesizing, and what most fitness trainers have been advising, for many years now.
Because ‘fat’ is now an acceptable body type, people have little incentive to reduce their weight.
Barbara Kay lamented in the NP a couple of days ago that kids today are so tech savvy, and high activity structured that they’re never bored. Her point being that they never have reason to pick up a book for the pure pleasure of reading. My point is that kids as a whole have little reason to go to the park.
Lou Schuler, a 30 year veteran of the fitness industry and author, [New Rules of Lifting, New Rules of Lifting for Women] uses study after study to show that resistance training to build muscle is the most efficient method to burn fat. Ditch the machines he suggests and pick up some weights. He adds though that building muscle is hard but anyone can do it if they’re persistent.
All of which is to say that North American society as a group has grown too soft, has too many distractions, and is too lazy to undertake the remedial efforts required to correct its obesity epidemic.
I’m getting to that crucial age where any injury means I’ll not likely find my way back to fitness. So I guard my strength and work at maintaining it. Strength is not the only component of fitness but it’s essential so you can walk and take on daily chores and activities. Being strong also helps to avoid injury. Many of my friends are suffering from pain simply because they don’t maintain enough strength to support their joints. They walk on flat surfaces on sidewalks and the mall. If they encounter a path that has a slight incline, they’re in difficulty. These are not old people, but they’re letting themselves age by not doing very much that demands strength.
I don’t expect fitness will extend my life. I think that depends more on the genetic lottery than most lifestyle choices. However, I hope to extend the range of useful life by walking the hills and biking the trails for many years to come. Weight training can be done by anyone and the benefits are almost immediate. These activities allow me to do my daily chores and work in the garden more comfortably.
I retired from a “standing and sitting” job and have had enough of immobility. We should be urging everyone to MOVE as much as possible. I’m saddened by the lousy posture, the frailty, and the lumbering gait of folks, young and old, who simply don’t move enough.
PhilM…I had meant to say I agree with you about strength training. The other nice thing about building muscle is that muscle burns fat even when it’s not actually working. So you get a double benefit.
So if I never sit down, I’ll never die? Hmm… might be worth it.
Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter,died 1640, and painted images of what we now consider un-correct weighted individuals, I think seventeenth century folks did not sit that much, so why the big buns?
Rita, you hit the nail on the head. Strength training is all about being able to do the things that we’re meant to do: squat, twist, pick something up or raise something above our heads.
That’s what Schuler emphasizes in his books: squat, lunge, pushup, twists, bent-over-row, and arm raises. 6 exercises. That’s it! And it’s that simple. No ab crunches, no major isolations. 30 minutes twice a week, three is better, and most anyone can be on the road to better health. And the upshot is that lots of good food in encouraged. He pooh-poohs low cal, low carb diets for the physiological reasons that he recites.
And what’s really interesting is that his book on lifting for women essentially posits that women are being sold down the river by orgs like Curves and Good Life Fitness with their machine circuits. Essentially he says, women are very similar to men so there is no good reason why they can’t do what guys do in the gym. I like his phrase: ‘Lift like a man, look like a godess’
Which brings me back to your comment that you have many friends who have trouble walking on an incline. Sad really isn’t it.
I like to think that people put more time caring about their gardens, homes or vehicles because they have an equity stake in those. Hey, if the body breaks down, no probs, the State will cover those costs. 🙁
“My point is that kids as a whole have little reason to go to the park.”
Good comments Rita and PhilM, but I will disagree a little with the comment I’ve quoted.
Speaking from personal experience, we haven’t seen in either of our girls a lack of motivation to “go out” and be active. Sure we’ve got a mandatory reading and homework regime, but that’s normal right? Anyways, we monitor the monitor time, but in reality, our kids don’t over do it. I guess our parenting experience has been difference from those that claim their kids don’t go out. Both our kids will leave on a nice day with an apple and a sandwich and not check-back (begrudgingly)until supper, the young one covered in dirt.
One bit of advise for what it’s worth; having two kids and only one laptop ensures that both the kids are not computing all the time.
As it happens, I’ve done considerable looking into the whole issue of sitting positions and etc. due to working with wheelchairs and designing things for head and spinal cord patients.
The best general work on the issue is a little book called “The Seated Man”, which can be found on the web. AC Mandal is the author. The book focuses on the effect normal chairs and office furniture have on the lower back, which as all you office types know is double-plus ungood.
My solution to the problem was to sit on the floor. Japanese style writing desks and “chairs” are eminently sensible and well designed for these purposes. So that’s what I do at home.
Real world, nobody in a modern office is going to sit on the floor. Never going to happen. So one makes do with “ergonomic” chairs and tables, which no one -ever- wants to buy… until they have an incapacitating back injury from picking a kleenex off the floor. THEN they are interested.
They stay interested until the pain goes away.
At which time the fancy ergonomic furniture goes into storage because its different from everything else in the office, and the one unforgivable sin in modern office culture is being -different-. I’ve been down this road quite a few times, it always ends the same.
Therefore the above listed “research” is 100% make-work grant sucking by some feeble academics who have a publish-or-perish problem. It doesn’t matter if sitting -does- cause obesity (which I very, very strongly doubt). Even if they were to prove it 100% and get a tax passed to fine people for sitting, it would change nothing.
Which by the way is probably the real reason the research is being done. Universal computer medical records can be used as a basis for entirely new nanny state tax opportunities. Your BMI is out of “normal” range? Oh, you have to pay a fine, big boy!
I foresee a food tax based on data mining of medical records, credit/debit cards and supermarket loyalty card data. Every time you buy something at a restaurant or store which some expert system algorithm decides is bad for you, they ding you 20% of the total bill. Or possibly fine the restaurant for selling it to you, depends if they are still trying to destroy private enterprise or not, I guess.
Exactly Phantasmo, that’s likely the plan, and the possibilities are endless.
I anticipate that Health Care rationing will be at the forefront of ways to use your own personal information against you. One fact that Americans are not speaking much of is that these national records will now be at the fingertips of many more interest groups than simply you and your doctor(IRS anyone?). Generally I support technology and modernizing, but in come cases, jot notes on a note pad for the use of someone you personally know doesn’t sound like too bad a thing.
My experience is a bit different from IndHomez; I also have two daughters, but they have practically every tech device known to man (no Xbox or Playstation, though. They do have a Wii, but it doesn’t get used much). But, it is nothing for me to see both of them sitting in front of the TV, with a laptop within reach, AND reading a book at the same time. This sort of multi-tasking is SOP.
Both read for pleasure constantly, and I’ve noticed that their tastes have improved as they have aged, without any pressure from me or my wife. But they don’t just sit on their butts.
We have no similarly aged children in our neighbourhood, so they have never gone out after dinner to play tag or hide-and-seek, as I did. Still, elder daughter plays soccer, volleyball, field hockey, etc., while younger one likes to skate, ski, and swim. I lament the lack of opportunity for all children these days to indulge in unstructured play; adults just won’t get out of their way! I think if kids are given the chance to just play, as opposed to participate in some adult-structured game or league, most kids want to be physical. But the same nanny-statists who want our kids kitted out in safety suits before they cross the street can’t abide the idea that children can actually do something without an adult organizing it. The kids pay the ultimate price.
KevinB, what you describe is what I see around in the city. In the country the kids just run outside. There’s still no other kids to play with, but at least mum and dad aren’t up in their face all day.
You said something that cuts to the heart of things though: “But the same nanny-statists who want our kids kitted out in safety suits before they cross the street can’t abide the idea that children can actually do something without an adult organizing it.”
That’s it in a nutshell. The nannies think -adults- are too stupid to look after themselves. They wet their pants with anxiety thinking about kids unsupervised. Children must be controlled, guided, steered as it were.
I mean, somebody could lose an eye!
sort of re. this child fitness and the technology glut subject, I’ll say this: I’m convinced that if the internet had existed in anything like its present (spectacular) form when I was a child I never would have learned how to read fluently.
(I didn’t learn to read in school. I learned to read from reading books.)
… several studies suggest that people who spend prolonged periods on their behind are more likely to be overweight, have heart disease or even die.
Ummm call me crazy (and they have) but I always thought it was highly likely that we ALL will die regardless of the time spent on one’s derrière or level of activity…….who else knew?
The Grey Lady, you are definitely onto something there.
Lady, that was my point much earlier. Glad to hear it repeated. 🙂
I always found the cardio-vascular is more important than strength/muscle.. like jogging, walking daily, even simple stretching. As far as food goes..I eat..same weight for 35yrs.
And the myth about thick blood, forget it Go With Thin.
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Reg: I couldn’t agree more about the importance of cadio-vascular health. But I wonder if the CV system gets more out of a few (2 or 3) anaerobic workouts ie, weights or many (4-7) aerobic workouts ie walking/running.
When I suggest weights, I’m not inferring 100+ lbs but rather 5-25lbs weights, depending on one’s fitness level. Going anaerobic by holding just two cans of soup and squatting 20 times, resting and then repeating can do the trick. The problem is such a simple exercise is beyond the capability of many of us.
Where the gov’t is going to get the funds to fund the coming Boomer medical tsunami, I don’t know.
Reg, definitely aerobic exercise is important to maintain your cardiovascular system and to maintain your weight–as long as people realize that it takes about 33 km of walking/easy jogging to wear off a pound. (One pound of body fat contains around 3500 calories and one km of walking wears off about 100 cal. Higher intensity increases the wear-off factor but only up to a point.) Most people overestimate how much they wear off compared with how much they take in. One Big Mac contains about 500 calories–nearly 5 hours of walking. A large Dairy Queen Blizzard contains about 1300 calories.
Strength training is important for maintaining the machine so the muscles and joints can continue to do their job. For women it has a particular benefit because weight bearing activity helps the bones retain calcium and avoid osteoporosis. It’s suggested that many so-called hip fractures in the elderly are not the result of falls. The hip collapses because the bones are fragile and then the person falls.
Like others have mentioned, I used to think that exercise would keep me young forever. I know realize that I will still get old but I hope my efforts will extend my usable life. So far, I manage to do my daily tasks with more ease than I see in some of my contemporaries who are perfectly healthy but don’t work at staying strong. It’s a crap shoot. We all know about the fit healthy athlete who drops dead from a brain aneurysm and someone’s cigar-smoking, scotch-swilling uncle who lived to be 95.
rita, my cigar smoking, scotch swilling grandfather lived to be 98, and he got the crap blown out of him in WWI to boot. Worked at carcinogenic STELCO for 50 years as well. Worst diet imaginable.
I’ve done a fair bit of work with seniors, and it appears to me its never too late for couch potatoes to get benefit from exercise. 94 year old woman gained enough strength from three months of Tai Chi to jettison the walker she used and go with a cane instead.
The trick with exercise is -doing- it. I freakin’ hate exercise myself. I find ways to get a workout without “doing exercises”, because otherwise I usually just sit around. Sloth is insidious.