A Survival Guide to the Sedentary Lifestyle

It’s Ok to be Sedentary!

Yes, it really is ok to be sedentary. I am sedentary and I’m not planning on changing that any time soon. Usually, just like most of us, I spend over 8 hours daily at my desk. Some days I may end up spending as much as 10 to 12 hour on my hind.

But what about the commonly known dangers of a sedentary lifestyle? “Are you that ignorant?” - one may ask. I can assure you, I’m planning on staying fit and healthy. I’m not suicidal or rebellious. I simply believe that there’s nothing wrong with sitting if done responsibly.

What is Sedentary?

What does the word “sedentary” mean? Well, let’s see what the dictionary by Merriam-Webster has to say on that account:

One of the definitions the dictionary offers is:

Here is where one may find things a bit confusing.

One scenario is when I get to sit quite a lot. But I’m generally very active. Am I sedentary then? On the other hand, what if I don’t sit that much and I don’t move much either? Does that make me active? 

The answer to both questions can be “yes” and “no.” Confusing, right? 

Take a moment and think about a person working at a conveyor line standing in one place for hours and visually assessing objects passing by his or her eyes all day long. Now imagine a long-distance cyclist or a boat rower who train for many hours. Are those sedentary activities? What about a call center worker, who sits all day talking on the phone and runs 10k every evening. What category can we assign this person to? Sedentary? Active?

Why is this important? Without a concrete understanding of what the problem might be, we can’t really look for a solution, can we? And the “sedentary lifestyle” is one of the greatest problems most of us face today.

The sedentary lifestyle has been considered to be the cause of many modern health-related problems. Yet, if we look closer, a lot of the problems associated with this lifestyle are imposed by completely various factors, which are not at all exclusive to people who sit a lot. I believe that the generalization of the subject matter is not the best way to approach this. Perhaps, we ought to be more careful with the definition.

Let's take a look at the most common health issues associated with a sedentary lifestyle:

• being overweight and obese (slower metabolism and burning fewer calories)
• high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels
• developing risk for certain cardiovascular diseases
• diabetes 2 and other obesity-related diseases

“Somewhat common”:

• loss of lean muscle mass, decrease in strength and endurance
• weaker bones, due to a decrease of mineral content (osteoporosis)
• weak immune system
• anxiety and depression

And apparently, the “not so common” issues are:

• musculoskeletal problems and postural deviations
• poor blood circulation
• chronic pains in the back and neck areas
• limited range of motion in joints
• joint pain
• chronic headaches
• being prone to physical injuries
• digestion & lung health due to compression of internal organs
• tossing and turning in bed trying to fall asleep
• even bunions on your feet, etc.

If you search the Internet for articles devoted to dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, see how many will come up from the top, the middle, and the bottom lists.

Here’s an interesting fact to notice - the top list contains health issues mostly associated with chronic inactivity. Go ahead, search Google for the “dangers of inactivity.” Was I right or what?

In this case, we don’t assume that one sits at a desk, stands in front of a classroom or lies in bed all day long. On the other hand, the second list contains some of the important health issues induced by chronic inactivity. Yet, for some reason, it’s not mentioned as often as the items from the first list. Why is that?

There are many factors that drive this tendency. One of which is possibly the fact that the health issues represented by the second list are not considered to be as detrimental to the overall wellbeing of a person. Another reason is that some of these issues, for example, the body composition, are outside of a medical professional’s scope and aren’t treated at medical facilities. However, I personally believe, that they are somewhat underestimated in terms of their overall effect on our health and should be given much more attention. We will spend more time later on discussing the items from the first two lists. For now, let’s move onto the last list and see what it represents.

This list assumes that one sits for prolonged periods of time. In other words: “If you sit, that’s it!” If you are a regular sitter (Who is not?) sooner rather than later you will be affected by the issues listed. Simply being physically active will not alleviate these problems. Actually, quite often you may aggravate some of these issues if you are not careful with exercising or whatever other physical activities you engage in. 

Now, have you noticed what we just discovered? There are two distinct reasons why a sedentary lifestyle may be harmful to oneself. The first one is inactivity. The second one is, you guessed it, actually being sedentary or sitting a lot. 

Yes, the sitting position is what may cause a lot of issues by itself. The issues that are quite different from those inflicted by inactivity. I am a corrective exercise specialist and I am intimately familiar with the staggering statistics of people suffering as a consequence of spending excessively long periods of time in the same sitting position. I believe, that these are the “real dangers” of being sedentary. They must be approached in a different way than the dangers rooted in inactivity. That is why I insist that the term “sedentary lifestyle” must mean exactly that - “sitting a lot” and not just being physically inactive.

There's another peculiar thing one can easily miss. There are certain problems, such as joint pain or back pain, which can prevent us from being physically active. Trying to be active in spite of feeling this pain, may aggravate these conditions. Therefore, a person may find himself or herself within a vicious cycle that is hard to break out of. That is why without addressing the issues from the bottom list, one may find it difficult dealing with many other issues that require increasing the amount of regular physical activity.

Luckily there’s a methodical approach to dealing with these issues. This is exactly what I will share with you via the articles presented in this section of the website.

Can’t we just sit less?

I’m sure you are wondering why we just can’t sit less and avoid all these problems. This is a very good question. And I do believe that sitting less should be a part of the solution, but I’m also pretty sure that sitting is not going away, so we may as well learn how to deal with it. That’s is exactly why at the beginning of this page I said: “I am sedentary and I’m not planning on changing that any time soon.” I will state my case in the next article called “Why We Sit.”