Exercise is not enough to overcome the risks of prolonged sitting

Yes, you read that right.

“Even if you exercise, you still should be mindful of taking breaks and be moving throughout the day, because exercise is not enough to overcome the risks of sitting and sitting in long bouts,” said Keith Diaz, co-author of the study from Columbia University Medical Center.

It isn’t just the amount of time spent sitting, but also the way in which sitting time is accumulated during the day, that can affect risk of early death.

“If you sit at work all day, if you sit at home a lot, then you should be really mindful of trying to take a break from your sitting habits as often as possible – at least every 30 minutes.”

The results of the research published last year in Annals of Internal Medicine show that:

Adults who sit for one to two hours at a time without moving have a higher mortality rate than adults who accrue the same amount of sedentary time in shorter bouts.
Adults with more than 13 hours per day and who frequently had inactive bouts of at least 60-90 consecutive minutes had a nearly two-fold increase in death risk compared with those who had the least total sedentary time and the shortest sedentary bouts.
Those who kept most of their sitting bouts to less than 30 minutes had the lowest risk of death.

But wait. Is this the first time health experts cried foul?

Certainly not.

In a scientific statement back in 2016, the American Heart Association (AHA) also said that regardless of how much physical activity someone gets, prolonged sedentary time could negatively impact the health of your heart and blood vessels.

The AHA identified sedentary behaviors such as sitting, reclining, or laying down while awake as well as reading, watching television or working on the computer.