On standing and walking

Pioneer of standing and walking

You may have always worked under the assumption that the healthiest thing to do in life is to stay in a seated position all day without any exercise or breaks to stretch out. After all, why would we have been given such nicely padded butts if not to sit on them? Well it's time to throw that conventional wisdom right out the cubicle!

So are you sitting down right now? Well DON'T. In fact, the sitting that you may be doing this very moment could be KILLING YOU. Yes, you read that right: KILLING YOU (CAPITAL LETTERS FOR SHOCKING EMPHASIS). Like, greatly increased chance for heart disease and years taken off your life (see this frightening infographic for more of the gruesome details). It's a pretty grave situation, to be sure.

Fortunately, the murderousness of sitting is actually pretty reversible, and, if Lifehacker.com can be trusted (editor's note: it has saved my life on several occasions), all you really need to do is schedule in a brief standing-and-walking break after every 60 contiguous minutes of sitting. Simple as that. And for good measure, you should exercise for at least 30 minutes a day.

I know that with our busy schedules, structured exercise can be hard to do sometimes, but try to get a little creative. For example, instead of walking the dog, strap him to some rollerskates and go for a sprint! Or instead of taking the elevator at your building, buy some suction cups and climb up the side!

Now go take advantage of those few extra years of meaningful existence that I just gifted you.
(And if you didn't catch the link above, read the full article here.)