I used to have a friend who when I went over to his mother's house, she would constantly remind us that the furniture in the formal living room was, "Not for sitting!" (never mind that it always had that weird "Grandma" plastic on it and would have been uncomfortable as all get out...)
Little did I know that she was absolutely right, but was a bit off in her coordinates. It is not the furniture that is not for sitting, it is the Ischial Tuberosities that "are not for sitting!"
In the 'western world' (up until recently) we were the odd ones who would rest our Ischial Tuberosities (Butt) on objects in order to rest, eat, poop, converse with others, and travel. However, this is not what our Butts are primarily designed to do functionally. Our Butts are the source of large muscles that are useful and primarily for many other functions besides resting our weary soft bodies. Butts are great for standing, squatting, lunging, running, cracking walnuts (Joe D.), lifting heavy objects off the ground, and last but not least, supporting our functions and activities through each and every day.
It seems dis-respectful to primarily use our Butts for such a heinous activity as sitting. So, the subject of this weekend's HomeWork.
No sitting for 24 hours. Period.
It is a 'holiday weekend' for most all of us, so this should be fairly easy to accomplish.
For one day (and night), over the weekend, you are not to sit on your Butt at all.
You are free to walk, squat, lean, and even lay flat. I specify lay flat because all cultures over the eons of existence have layed flat in order to sleep and so shall we. Only recently in human existence did people start sitting in chairs. Historically, mankind has squatted or rested upon a rock or on flat ground.
As an experiment for the HomeWork we are taking that one little step forward. We will not sit on any rocks, nor on flat ground.
If we are not sleeping while laying flat, we will stand or squat. Period.
And, for a list of studies that examine the ill-effects of sitting, check out the list below.
Have a great weekend,
MRoss
Katzmarzyk, P. T. et al. 2009. “Sitting time and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 41: 998-1005
Dunstan, D. W. et al. 2010. “Television viewing time and mortality: the Australian diabetes, obesity and lifestyle study (AusDiab).” Circulation 121: 384-391
Dunton, G. F. et al. 2009. “Joint associations of physical activity and sedentary behaviors with body mass index: results from a time use survey of US adults.” International Journal of Obesity 33: 1427-1436
Levine, J. A. et al. 2006. “Non-exercise activity thermogenesis: the crouching tiger hidden dragon of societal weight gain.” Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology 26: 729-736
Levine, J. A. et al. 2005. “Interindividual variation in posture allocation: possible role in human obesity.” Science 307: 584-586
Conzett-Baumann, K. et al. 2009. “The daily walking distance of young doctors and their body mass index.” European Journal of Internal Medicine 20: 622-624
Hamilton, M. T., Hamilton, D. G. and Zderic, T. W. 2007. “Role of low energy expenditure and sitting in obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.” Diabetes 56: 2655-266
Pedersen, B. K. 2009. “The diseasome of physical inactivity — and the role of myokines in muscle-fat cross talk.” Journal of Physiology 587: 5559-5568
Olsen, R. H. et al. 2008. “Metabolic responses to reduced daily steps in healthy nonexercising men.” Journal of the American Medical Association 299: 1261-1263
Healy, G. N. et al. 2008. “Breaks in sedentary time: beneficial associations with metabolic risk.” Diabetes Care 31: 661-666
