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Comment by maskedinvader | Hacker News Reader

"We need better-quality studies to really determine if sitting makes people sick"

This. A thousand times this. I ask because as a programmer I spend roughly 10-12 hours sitting at work and roughly 3 hours at home, with maybe an hour of walking each day, and I would like to know if I am prone to aging and being sick more due to my sitting habit or its just wrong interpretation of data and there is no significant correlation.

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I think if you are walking a solid hour a day every day you are getting your exercise just fine. Even half an hour a day of walking is good.

There are studies suggesting that exercise does not totally cancel out the damage caused by long hours of sitting.

Alternatively, you can use a standing desk, or switch between a sitting and a standing desk. That way you have an additional litte exercise during the working hours.

I've read so many (anecdotal) stories about standing desks doing a number on knees and ankles that I think I'd rather go in a tanning bed than get one.

the pain on ankles is real if your floor tends to be hard. Using a soft mattress helps somewhat.

Do these issues also occur when you switch between standing and sitting?

(I suspect that the real issue is neither sitting nor standing, but monotonicity.)

In my experience -- again, completely anecdotal --, investing in a high quality office chair, mattress and set of pillows goes a long way towards less joint pain/damage. Standing desks just move the damage lower down.

I have used a standing desk for several years now. Probably standing/sitting 60/40. For a few years it was 80/20. Any issues I had where primarily related to my feet. Some good supporting sandals fixed that. Other than that I practice martial arts 2x1.5 hour a week quite intensively. Walk to work and back 40 min/day. I now control my weight easily and am much healthier and alert. Sleep one hour less per day, and still feel great.

Moderation in all things, I built my own standing desk because I wanted a huge work space and it to be higher than the usual.

I sit/stand about 50/50 (30 minutes before switching), I use a panel timer (xfce) to remind me to switch and it works great.

Everyone seems to think going all-in is the only option...I have a standing desk and stand maybe 33% of the day at most. The real issue is likely just taking a break from sitting and walking around the office every hour or so. When standing I am much more likely to walk around in the first place.

Yeah that's what I recall aas well, even think I saw it here on HN. Consensus was along the lines of 'an hour of exercise every night cannot cancel out the damage done by sitting down continuously for 8 hours' and the remedy 'interrupt sitting evrey hour or so, e.g. by a breif walk'.

"Conclusion: Prolonged sedentary time was independently associated with deleterious health outcomes regardless of physical activity."

http://annals.org/aim/article/2091327/sedentary-time-its-ass...

Found via https://blog.fitbit.com/sitting-hurts-fitbit-data-suggests-y...

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