Bad news for you seaside lovers: Pumpkin spice latte season has begun, a jarring reminder that summer time is winding down. The arrival of Labor Day doesn’t simply imperil your tan, nonetheless — it can additionally jeopardize your long-term well being.
The altering season brings a work interval with out one other main vacation break till Thanksgiving. This means tens of millions of workplace employees spend extra time at their desks, exacerbating an epidemic of stillness that’s slowly killing us.
In case you’re considering you can offset your daylong sitting by going to the gymnasium, it’s not so easy.
People who work at a desk spend, on common, 77% of their workday sitting, with work breaks taken primarily for bathroom runs and meals. Like the frog in the pot of ever-warmer water, the hazard from stillness might not be apparent till it is too late, nevertheless it can change into life-threatening.
Before the widespread shift to distant work for workplace jobs, a major study in 2012 attributed practically one in 10 untimely deaths to bodily inactivity. Excessive sitting will increase the threat of loss of life from heart problems and most cancers, in accordance to the Mayo Clinic. In a meta-analysis of research involving greater than 1 million individuals, those that sat greater than eight hours a day with no bodily exercise in any respect had an elevated threat of dying on par with smoking. The authorities of Australia went as far as to declare “sitting is the new smoking.”
Now, our enormous shift toward remote work has solely exacerbated matters, with studies showing we’re participating in much more sedentary labor day-after-day. It seems these journeys to the water cooler have been extra than simply a likelihood to swap tales with co-workers. Research has proven that even light activity, like quick walks or climbing a set of stairs periodically, can assist counteract the unhealthfulness of sitting.
As a part of a bigger physique of behavioral analysis on office well being, my colleagues and I at Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight performed a sequence of eight research to perceive the handiest messaging to get desk employees to get up and transfer round.
Study members learn considered one of 4 messages describing the threats of extended sitting or recommending they get up extra. Then we gave them the possibility to stand for both an open-ended or particular timeframe. It turned out, although, that informing individuals of the risks of stillness was not a highly effective motivator to transfer.
Simple, simple requests to get up throughout the workday, although, did get workers out of their chairs. In truth, between 64% and 87% of individuals would get up when requested. They didn’t want to hear about the unfavorable penalties of extended sitting. They simply wanted the cue. In this case, direct requests work nicely as a result of most of us really feel awkward declining a simple, in-person request that we’re in a position to fulfill.
The good news is that you simply don’t have to spend all day standing or being lively. In truth, standing all day brings its own set of health dangers. Every particular person is completely different, and the most bodily lively amongst us can get away with sitting longer. But for most individuals, for each 20 minutes spent sitting, standing for eight minutes and shifting for 2 minutes would approximate the ideal.
These findings provide a path ahead for each employees and managers. For workers, discover the least-painful methods to incorporate standing into your on a regular basis duties. Create a system wherein each time you ship an e mail or take a telephone name, you keep in mind to get up. Or if you would like to channel your internal Steve Jobs, schedule “walking meetings” — you simply may come up with the subsequent iPhone.
For managers, ask individuals to get up and transfer round. It sounds awkward, however information present that we underestimate the energy of direct requests by 50%. These asks ought to be made in particular person if attainable. Everyone will get too many emails and on-line communications, and they’re simple to ignore or misread. Furthermore, the setting ought to assist workers transfer — for instance, by offering standing desks. If standing doesn’t pose bodily issues on your crew, get up once you do huddles, or combine up the Zoom routine by asking audio system to stand when issuing updates.
There’s a catch, nonetheless: Getting up should be handy. Even minor obstacles preserve us in our seats. For instance, research members being paid to full a simulated work process have been 22 proportion factors much less doubtless to get up when given the alternative if it meant pausing their work on the process.
To tackle this impediment, managers can assist by nurturing a office the place lively breaks are inspired or rewarded, and even built into the workday. For these working from home, set reminders in your telephone. Listen to these pesky Apple Watch “stand” alerts. Or preserve your telephone in the different room. And drink a lot of water. Not solely will this preserve you hydrated and wholesome — these journeys to the toilet will even power you to stand up.
In case you’re considering you can offset your daylong sitting by going to the gymnasium, it’s not so easy. Some research suggests that 60 to 75 minutes of average bodily exercise, resembling train intense sufficient to break a sweat however not so intense that you simply can’t keep it up a dialog, can offset the threat of untimely loss of life related to usually sitting for greater than eight hours. But it’s far from settled science.
Labor Day can function what behavioral scientists name a “temporal landmark” — a second in time once we get a contemporary begin and a likelihood to make adjustments for the higher. So for those who’re studying this text, get up now! And once you return to the workplace tomorrow, take lively breaks. If you work from home, you’re saving hours day-after-day not having to commute. Put that point to good use. Maybe even head to your native espresso store and choose up a pumpkin spice latte. It is the season, in spite of everything.