MAKE IT WORK

With mounting evidence around the damaging effects of sedentary working lives, Joe Phelan explores how exercise and general movement can be incorporated into office hours

- Joe Phelan

Most of us build our days around our work. Full-time employees in the UK spend an average of 36.4 hours every week engaged in their primary occupation. That’s almost 2,000 hours a year. By contrast, UK adults only spend around 90 minutes every week doing moderate physical activity – a mere 78 hours annually, and half as long as we spend sat on the toilet.

Lack of time is often cited as a key hurdle stopping people from exercising more frequently. From having too many social responsibilities, to being overburdened at the office, many are, understandably, guilty of putting other responsibilities ahead of their exercise routine. But what if those long hours at work could be utilised more effectively?

The body keeps the score

Before fully assessing the viability of effectively combining work and working out, it’s important to understand and appreciate how the body can be negatively impacted by hours spent staring at a screen and remaining slumped in a chair.

“Research has shown that people who sit for hours on end develop chronic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and dementia, as well as several types of cancer, at much higher rates than people who move throughout their day,” notes Keith Diaz, assistant professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. “They are also at much greater risk of early death. The reality that we are learning is that your body wasn’t designed to be idle for long periods of time. Sitting for hours on end at work is an occupational hazard that cannot be undone by exercising for 30 to 60 minutes either before or after work.”