The very best thing you can do is to stand up and start walking - even if it’s only around the office. Photo / Jason Strull, Unsplash
If you are sitting at your computer, ask yourself, when was the last time you stood up? During office hours, of all the tasks on your to-do list, moving your own body can be the hardest.
The effects of long days at work might already be familiar to you: a niggling ache in the back or a pain in the neck (not to be confused with an annoying colleague).
But for those who have no choice, the pronouncement that sitting is the new smoking can be deeply frustrating. For all that giving it up can be hard, smoking is a matter of choice. For the millions of us who work in offices, sitting down is not.
In 2021, 25.7 per cent of workers in the UK were in “professional” jobs, making this the type of occupation with the highest percentage of workers. It’s also the group most likely to sit for long periods of time.
Being told that prolonged, uninterrupted sitting increases your risk of diabetes, cancer-related death, cardiovascular problems and all-cause mortality just feels like rubbing salt into the wound.
Studies suggest that 60-75 minutes of brisk walking or leisurely cycling is enough to eliminate the health risks of sitting for eight hours.
Three times a week, I will leave my desk, yoga mat under my arm, and march up to the office gym, in the vain hope of easing out some of the spinal stiffness that I experience. It’s something I see as a ring-fenced commitment, although I’m not sure my editors feel the same. On a pinched deadline day, exercise is the first thing to be sacrificed.
Whether you cycle to work or fit in a lunchtime gym session, finding the time around life commitments can be a struggle.
Telus Health (formerly LifeWorks), an employee health and well-being solutions company, surveyed 2000 UK employees and the results of its Mental Health Index revealed that 25 per cent of workers cite motivation and/or no energy as the barrier to exercising regularly, while 10 per cent of workers say that cost is the biggest barrier.
However, there’s a growing body of research that shows working up a sweat isn’t necessary when combatting the evils of sitting. You don’t have to be wearing Lycra, nor do you need any fancy or expensive gear.
A key finding of a study by Columbia University, published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, was that a five-minute light walk every half-hour was the only strategy that reduced blood-sugar levels substantially, compared with sitting down all day. In particular, five-minute walks every half-hour reduced the blood-sugar spike after eating by almost 60 per cent.
Anji Gopal, of BackCare Foundation, recalls what it was like working in an office in her 20s in her previous career in finance.
“When I worked in an office, I was young and there were many times I would push through when working and focusing on something. It’s when you stand up to put your coat on that you realise your back or neck are a bit stuffy. That’s what happens when you’re immersed in a project.”
Now, as an osteopath and yoga teacher who works both privately and for the NHS, she works with patients, students and teacher trainees on a daily basis, using yoga as a practical and gentle way to improve health.
She has delivered lectures to groups of doctors who look puzzled when she asks them to raise their arms above their heads. “One said, ‘I haven’t lifted my arms above my head all week.’”
In times gone by, we would have been picking fruit off trees, Gopal points out: “We don’t do those functional moves now, especially if we’re desk-based. It sounds trite today, but we really aren’t supposed to be sitting down all day.”
She likes finding movements that are easy to do, as that makes it more likely you will do them. “I’m a yoga teacher - trainer and a mum. I look for the simplest things I can do now, and quickly, which will make a difference for my patients, my clients and for me.”
Simple changes can become movement habits that no one will even notice you are doing.
Here’s how to move in the office – by stealth…
In an ideal world, you’d put a timer on your phone and get up and move around every 40 minutes, says Gopal. From there, you can work in small routines that become habits. If you need a reminder, put it as the screensaver on your phone.
“Get into the habit of saying, ‘Right, when I finish a phone call, I will always do some shoulder rolls.’ That might tie in with your mindfulness practice of asking, ‘how did that phone call go?’” says Gopal.
Take some deep breaths and notice where you’re breathing. “Place your hands on your abdomen and breathe into your tummy. Do some big ‘hah’ breaths now and then to relax your jaw.”
Most importantly, keep it simple. “We can have all these good intentions to get to the gym in our lunch hour, but it’s not an hour, it can be more like two by the time you’ve got there, changed and showered afterwards,” says Gopal. So keeping it simple and achievable is key if you’re short on time.
“It’s about getting things moving, unsticking, ungluing, decompressing and decongesting.”
Obviously, dropping and doing 20 press-ups would get things moving, but it might draw unwanted attention in the office.
To keep it more subtle, Gopal suggests standing up, putting your hands on your desk, bending your knees and stretching your bum towards the middle of the room.
“That’s an alternative to downward dog without having to do a downward dog,” says Gopal. You could always put a few elbow bends in to do a smaller push-up, too.
When we sit for long periods, the hip flexors, the group of muscles along the front of the upper thigh, become tight. “So long as your office chair doesn’t have wheels, you could always put one foot on your chair and do a little lunge that way – standing with one foot on the chair and the other on the floor.”
If you’re lucky enough to have a standing desk, tuck the back of your foot onto the chair behind you for a mini quad stretch.
“For me, I like small movements,” says Gopal. “I wouldn’t go into a deep lunge after sitting down for 40 minutes. I would just move around and do a wiggle and some hip circles and get loosened up before you go into a deep stretch.”
In her classes, Gopal teaches the “royal walk”, which you might have noticed King Charles doing over his many decades of public engagements.
“It’s how men often clasp one wrist behind their back, and that definitely stops you slouching. There’s a natural lift to the chest when you do this.”
Stand at the printer/watercooler/tea stations and do some shoulder rolls. “Alternate each one, forwards and backwards. Again, this helps to move your upper back.”
Find an excuse to have to reach up to a high shelf, maybe for a book or some stationery.
How you walk can also make a big difference when targeting those underactive muscle groups.
“Very simply, if you’re on a long call, you could engage one glute and then engage the other one as you walk. Try it in a straight line and tense and release as you walk. You’ll notice that when you walk from your glutes, you speed up and go much faster, because the glutes are powering you forwards. It’s not how you’d walk all the time, but you can do it for short bursts.”
The very best thing you can do is to stand up and start walking - even if it’s only around the office.
“The whole of the inside of the body is moving all the time,” Gopal says. “You’ve got blood flow, you’ve got fluid moving in and out of the joints all the time. When we’re sitting, everything gets sluggish and compressed. So your joints need that pumping action for the synovial fluid to move around.”
Disc compression occurs when we sit down for too long. “They start to get compressed and under load. So just walking around gets the muscles moving again and gets the blood pumping. And you feel better. Look out for opportunities to walk around in the office. Is there a phone call you can make while walking around? If you’re good at drinking your water, then jettison the big bottle and take more frequent trips, for smaller cups, to the water cooler.”
We often don’t have much choice about sitting down. If you’re having a busy day, when even grabbing lunch isn’t going to happen, then the least you can do is avoid being too static. Vary your posture, says Gopal.
“In my experience, we get really hung up on perfect posture, which matters less than moving yourself around and having variation. The joints like movement and the body likes movement.”
The best posture is one that changes.
“The definition of posture is the way you sit or stand. It’s not about it being perfect. It’s just the way you hold your body as you sit and stand.”
So, vary your sitting position. Lift your chair up a bit, lower it down a bit, even change your chair now and then. Take time to notice how you sit. Do you have one leg crossed over the other? Is it always the same leg? “I had a patient with a stiff hip. Eventually, we worked out that she sits with one leg tucked underneath her for hours on end.”
To avoid that feeling of congestion in the tissues while sitting, Gopal recommends finding parts of your body you can move. “I’m a big fan of rotations. Do some wrist and ankle circles. They sound too simple to be useful, but these things work because they are simple.” We’ve all got caught up in too much complexity, believes Gopal. “Circle your ankles five times one way and then the other way. If you’re in a meeting, who will notice?”
Slip your shoes off and wiggle your toes. “Place a tennis ball under your desk and roll your feet over it.” You can even walk your legs under your desk. “Lift one heel up and then the other heel.”
Jiggle whatever you can. “Wobble your knees from side to side, like dad dancing, knees apart.”
Constant sitting weakens the gluteus medius, one of the three primary muscles in the buttocks. Get the glutes activated, too. “Clench one side and then the other.”
