After "Yang Kang", don't sit for a long time, four ways to make you "stand up"

In recent days, I believe that many of our "Yangkang" friends have returned to work. However, it may take some time for them to fully recover and be full of energy (victory is just around the corner~).

During this process, in addition to daily nutritional supplements, we must stay away from the time bomb of "sitting for a long time".

Previous studies have shown that prolonged sitting is associated with serious physical and mental health problems, including obesity and a cluster of conditions that make up metabolic syndrome, namely high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels; in addition, sitting too much and for too long can also increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Whether it's working at a desk, driving or staring at a screen, any prolonged sitting can be harmful. Those who sit for more than eight hours a day and do no physical activity have a mortality risk similar to that of obese people and smokers.

Therefore, Academic Jun reminds that no matter people are "Yang Kang" or waiting to become "Yang Kang", while working, remember not to slump down at your workstation or in bed. You must move appropriately to allow your weak body to recover as soon as possible.

The World Health Organization (WHO) pointed out in the previously released "WHO Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior" that everyone can benefit from reducing sedentary behavior, including pregnant and postpartum women and people with chronic diseases or disabilities.

At the same time, WHO also recommends that for people of different age groups, children and adolescents in particular should limit their time in front of recreational screens; adults and the elderly should replace sedentary time with physical activities of various intensities (including light intensity).

I understand the principle, but I just want to sit down. What should I do?

Recently, a research team from Radboud University Nijmegen and the University of Surrey published a study on how to reduce long periods of sitting.

Rather than tackling prolonged sitting with time-limited solutions, they suggest focusing more on increasing the frequency of situations in which people move from sit to stand (and stand to sit).

Simply put, it means making the action of standing up more meaningful, such as inviting colleagues to have a cup of coffee or eat some dessert.

The related research paper, titled “Why do people sit? A framework for targeted behavior change”, has been published in the scientific journal Health Psychology Review.

(Source: Health Psychology Review )

In this work, the research team proposed a framework for examining and changing sedentary behavior, addressing two key steps in the process of developing effective intervention measures.

Firstly, the research team suggests that research should move away from the current focus on sedentary time and instead focus on transitions from standing to sitting and vice versa.

Second, according to the goal hierarchy model, people rarely make transitions from standing to sitting or from sitting to standing for the sake of a sitting or standing posture; rather, these transitions are means to achieve higher-level goals, such as completing work tasks, watching TV, or eating dinner.

This may help explain why many existing interventions, such as changing the work environment, using activity monitors or using reminder software, have limited impact on people's long-term sitting.

"A smart device that simply tells people to stand up won't help people develop strong and lasting habits that encourage them to sit less," explained Dr Benjamin Gardner, one of the paper's authors and a researcher at the University of Surrey. " The real trick is to find reasons to switch between sitting and standing ."

A possible alternative to attempting to change people’s goal priorities is to leverage goals that people already have prioritized. That is, interventions should create an environment in which existing high-priority goals motivate people to make frequent sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transitions, or in which sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transitions do not hinder the achievement of existing high-priority goals.

To achieve this goal, intervention designers should take advantage of the higher-order goals that these transitions typically serve and increase sit-to-stand transitions that are consistent with people's daily goals. Therefore, the research team proposed the following 4 specific intervention strategies.

1

Changing Affordances

An affordance is an aspect of the social or physical environment that enables individuals to engage in certain behaviors (e.g., a chair is available for sitting). To facilitate frequent sit-to-stand transitions, interventions could focus on restructuring the environment to create affordances that invite people to make frequent sit-to-stand transitions while pursuing ongoing high-priority goals.

For example, height-adjustable desks are a promising tool if properly instructed and guided, because they enable people to work while standing; wireless laptops and portable video displays support mobile learning and work; and everyday items, such as trash cans, can be placed out of arm’s reach.

Of course, creating affordances may also mean moving facilities (e.g., printers, coffee machines) closer to people, as greater distance from shared facilities may make it easier for people to accumulate multiple tasks and want to complete them all at once.

Planning on task boundaries

2

To prevent interference with ongoing high-priority goals, interventions can occur at task boundaries, the moment between finishing one task and starting a new one , such as when a phone call ends or when a commercial break begins on a TV show. Moreover, people are more likely to remember taking actions at task boundaries than at ongoing tasks.

Also, realize that many people prefer sitting rather than standing for certain tasks, such as attending meetings and doing focused work. Therefore, task boundaries may be the best time to make sit-to-stand transitions.

Additionally, planning at task boundaries could improve the effectiveness of existing interventions. That is, rather than using a fixed, time-based sit-stand schedule, planning at task boundaries might improve the use of height-adjustable desks. For example, people might be instructed to plan their desk transitions between sitting and standing heights at specific, personally preferred task boundaries throughout the day, such as when starting a phone call.

3

Habit Formation

When transitions from sit-to-stand at task boundaries do not occur spontaneously and cannot be prompted, people can form habits through training that associate the completion of a specific task with transitions from sit-to-stand.

For example, people may associate the act of standing up with an environmental cue, such as pressing the “send” button on an email, hanging up the phone, or seeing the start of a television commercial.

Previous intervention studies have effectively used habit formation to incorporate healthy behaviors into people's daily activities.

Intervention Reconstruction

4

The research team believes this may help reformulate interventions to be more aligned with the higher-level goals people are already pursuing.

Specifically, people often avoid transitioning from sitting to standing in order to work efficiently (in the office). However, studies have shown that frequent standing breaks can improve work efficiency rather than hurt it.

Therefore, productivity interventions that exploit the known positive effects of (standing) breaks may be promising in the future.

The above four intervention strategies are all designed to adapt to people’s existing daily life and work arrangements as much as possible, thereby improving the effectiveness and applicability of the intervention.

In short, sitting less and moving more is good for your health. Whenever possible, switch from sitting to standing, or find ways to walk while working.

For example, take a break every 30 minutes; stand while talking on the phone or watching TV; try a standing desk when working at a desk; or use local materials such as a high table or kitchen countertop; and talk with colleagues while walking during meetings instead of sitting in the conference room.

Of course, we need to find ways to make these methods more meaningful and integrate them into our daily lives, only in this way can we really get moving.

Reference Links:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17437199.2022.2143851

https://www.mayoclinic.org/zh-hans/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/expert-answers/sitting/faq-20058005

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/337001/9789240014947-chi.pdf