The Less is More Thread

[Drastic]

Just in from Capt. Obvious:
http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/fitness/2011-01-13-breaks-seat-heart-health_N.htm

Moving about throughout the day is more healthy.

But what got me, is it also applies to those of us who routinely work out. Makes sense, but hadn't really thought about it in this light.


"Even if you exercise for 30 to 60 minutes a day, what you do for the rest of the day may also be important for your cardiovascular health," Healy explained. "This research suggests that even small changes to a person's activity levels (as little as standing up regularly) might help to lower cardiovascular risk. These changes can be readily incorporated into the person's day-to-day life (including the work environment). Stand up, move more, more often, could be used as a slogan to help get this message across."

The authors pointed out that in developed countries people spend more than half of their day sitting, on average. At the same time, they point out that heart disease is the number cause of premature death in both the United States and Europe.

[Brad]

As much as love working from my Ultimate Command Recliner I would like a desk made for standing like these: http://www.standupdesks.com.  I think it would be more healthy to switch between the two.

[dogboy]

>it would be more healthy to switch between the two.

agreed.  My Mom is an artist and she always had a huge drafting desk for engineering.

[creative666]

I am back in the gym after a few months off and I also bodyboard as much as the waves let me - which is usually twice a week through the summer. The winter season will be here soon and then I should be back in the water three or four times a week 

[littleman]

I had a standup desk for a couple of years.  I used it regularly.  For over a year I'd stand up for 8 hours a day, and then after some time I bought myself a big stool and would sit down for half the day.  To be honest it didn't do me any good.  I was already over weight at the time and I didn't do anything about my eating habits.  I've seen people put a computer on a low speed treadmill, that might be more effective.  I know everybody is different, but I've benefited very little from low intensity exercise,

[dogboy]

I recently tried one of those gigantic rubber exercised ball as a chair and loved it. 

[Drastic]

I had a standup desk for a couple of years.  I used it regularly.  For over a year I'd stand up for 8 hours a day, and then after some time I bought myself a big stool and would sit down for half the day.  To be honest it didn't do me any good.  I was already over weight at the time and I didn't do anything about my eating habits.  I've seen people put a computer on a low speed treadmill, that might be more effective.  I know everybody is different, but I've benefited very little from low intensity exercise,

I think this study/idea is more about general health, and avoiding heart disease in particular, which I don't think you would notice. What I gather is, if I'm fit and trim, and do 60 minutes of exercise every day, I still need to get up from the PC at various intervals throughout the day.

[littleman]

Yeah, I wasn't trying to imply that getting up and moving wasn't good for you, I just wanted to chime in on the standing desk idea.

[Rupert]

gigantic rubber exercised ball as a chair

We have 2 in the house.  Swiss balls over here.

A friend of mine who is a Lawyer, used to have one in an open office, with glass walls to the outside, and would bounce and balance on it when on the phone.

Must of been a picture

[littleman]

I'll just put this here:
http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2008/the-office-exercise-ball-p1.php

[Rupert]

I think I would get into big trouble for doing that      thanks for the idea.

[littleman]

Drastic, one tip I just read about to make sure you get up out of the desk often is to drink a lot, which forces you to get to the rest-room more often.  I've been doing this without thinking about it with my tea habit.

[Brad]

There is now a diet soda pop sweetened with Stevia called Zevia http://www.zevia.com/  I've tried a couple of flavors and it is not bad.  This is my dessert sometimes after supper to give me something sweet.

[Drastic]

Drastic, one tip I just read about to make sure you get up out of the desk often is to drink a lot, which forces you to get to the rest-room more often.  I've been doing this without thinking about it with my tea habit.

Yeah, I'm always needing to drink more water too.

Thanks for the reminder.

[ergophobe]

Sorry Drastic... I missed your question way back on Jan 4... here's a recap so you don't have to go find it

Drastic - looking at your exercise plan, I highly recommend Lou Schuler's books
...
I've changed over to more of a deadlifting/squats/Turkish Getups type of workout, which is more along the lines of NROL and what people like Mike Boyle, Mike Robertson, Dan Jon, Stuart McGill and people like that recommend.
...

Bottom line for me:
Switching to those types of workouts for me has made me leaner and stronger, with about half as much time in the gym as I was doing.

You mean, like the physical printed things? That's a, erm, novel concept. ;-) Seriously though, are you saying the books talk about the stuff you're now doing?

Yes, those books talk about that type of exercise. For $25 you can get both New Rules of Lifting and New Rules of Lifting for Abs (which is actually a much broader book than the title suggests and highly recommend it). Actually, I believe so strongly in the value of these books (and others along the same lines, but these are as good as any), that if you think you might be open to it and you tell me where to send it, I'll buy you a copy myself.

Otherwise, aside from NROL, look for books by Mike Boyle (dean of the "functional training" movement), Eric Cressy (if you're looking more to get strong than to get lean), and Pavel who everyone just calls Pavel because his last name is something like Tsatsouline.

Here are some podcasts so you don't have to do somethign so 20th century as go buy a book:

Mike Robertson interviewing:
- Pavel - http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/blog/ep-26-in-the-trenches-with-pavel-tsatsouline/
- Dan Jon - http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/blog/ep-21-in-the-trenches-with-dan-john/

The Fit Cast interview with Dan Jon, Lou Schuler and Alan Aragon
- http://thefitcast.com/episode-200-lou-schuler-alan-aragon-and-dan-john (that site is unresponsive at the moment but you can get it on iTunes - interestingly, a site:thefitcast.com search shows a lot of "tag" pages with the tile "Buy Clomid without a Prescription"... ooops. I should probably let them know.

make sure you get up out of the desk often is to drink a lot

I use this to remind me:
www.workrave.org

I had a standup desk for a couple of years.  I used it regularly.  For over a year I'd stand up for 8 hours a day, and then after some time I bought myself a big stool and would sit down for half the day.  To be honest it didn't do me any good.  I was already over weight

I thought I mentioned my experiences with the standup desk, but didn't find it in the thread. I use a standup desk, but having a matching chair is essential. Otherwise, when you get tired, you start to stand funny and it started causing me joint problems.

The benefit of the standup desk is more a matter of changing position. Sitting is bad for metabolic reasons, true, but standing still isn't much different. Standing has other benefits though. For example, so many of us have back problems because of the shortening and tightening of the psoas muscle, which is exacerbated by sitting. To me the standup desk is less about the value of standing per se and more about the value of variation and multiple movement patterns.