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Comment by meaty | Hacker News Reader

I hate this whole standing/treadmill desk fad. It solves the wrong end of the problem. Sitting on your ass is fine but don't do it all day.

I can understand if you're a hamster in a cage but seriously just go for a walk instead.

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That's easy if 'sitting on your ass' amounts to grazing on facebook, watching idle entertainment or playing games. For the rest of us who work on a computer at a job and/or then again at home, that's a bit impractical at best and not the least feasible for many, even some who happen not to be hamsters in a cage. And though a treadmill is a bit extreme I see no reason to shrug off standing desks as an annoying fad--it's just as natural a position to work as sitting though not as culturally ingrained, and uncomfortable for long straight hours (but then sitting is seemingly comfortable while not at all healthy).

Perhaps the problem is that you shouldn't be sitting in front of the computer at work and at home rather than have a standing desk at either?

>I hate this whole standing/treadmill desk fad. It solves the wrong end of the problem. Sitting on your ass is fine but don't do it all day.

Sure, but I actually find that I feel better when I use a standing desk than sitting.

Taking a walk a day isn't going to offset sitting on your ass for all of your other waking hours.

Unless you're walking constantly, but that makes it rather difficult to work at your computer...

Depends how far you walk. Too much exercise decreases your lifespan as much as too little.

Wow, I'd really like to read more about that. The the most things that kill americans are, Heart Disease, Cancer, Respiratory disease, and exercise helps with all of those. Suicide is in the top 10, and exercise helps depression. Any amount of exercise is better for lifespan than no exercise.

I'm willing to accept the possibility that there is an inflection point out there somewhere. However this sort of assertion without any evidence at all seems like something you made up. I'd really love to see any evidence at all that to much walking decreases lifespan.

Google for professional athlete lifespan.

Not sure what you want me to be googling for. all the studies point to longer lifespan.

"In conclusion, this study found that overall, professional football players had a 46% lower overall mortality rate than the general United States male population with a similar age and race distribution" http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/sports/28longman.p...

and there is a massive difference between professional athlete and your claim of "getting to much exercise"

I don't think it's remotely sensible to compare the types of exercise professional atheletes endure to walking.

10-20 times per day?

Well tend to walk about 5-6 miles a day and do nothing else whatsoever and I'm in very good health.

I don't eat meat though so my metabolism is probably different.

Why do you maintain this is just a fad? I walk that same distance every day on my treadmill desk. It's helped my chronic back problem and it's better for my joints because it prevents bad posture. What's wrong with it?

You'll find out in about 10 years.

So you think it's a fad, fine. But why the hatred for it? Why do you think they're bad? Have you seen research that shows them to be unhealthy? Did you have a bad experience with them? I'm trying to understand what you feel is disadvantageous about them in light of my and others' experiences to the contrary.

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