Sitting at work is horrible for you, but there's a simple way to counteract it
White House/Pete Souza
Research has shown that walking is one of the best things you can do to counter the effects of sitting all day.
A new study conducted by the University of Miami published Thursday in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease took that concept one step further. The researchers found that replacing one regular meeting a week with a walking meeting increased the amount of high intensity physical activity happening in a week by 10 minutes. This suggested that the walking meetings were having a positive impact on the worker's health.
The small pilot study only looked at 17 people who worked at the university in office jobs. The participants were given accelerometers to track how fast they were moving over time.
In the first week of the experiment, the participants were asked to go about their week the way they normally would. For the second two weeks, they were asked to set up a 30-minute walking meeting once a week with the other members of the study.
In addition to increased physical activity, the researchers observed some other added benefits of the walking meetings:
- Some said they were more focused on the meeting itself, since they couldn't be on their computer working on other tasks.
- The walking meetings kept their agendas on track, and the meeting ran efficiently.
- Some used it as a way to de-stress during the busy day.
- The meetings were easy to add to work routines, suggesting that it wouldn't be too difficult to apply this to a larger group.
Although the study was relatively small, the researchers pointed out some ways to expand. They recommended that future studies increase the number of walking meetings per week and that they look at the effects on a larger number of participants.
- US buys 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Russia's ally costing on average less than $20,000 each, report says
- 2 states where home prices are falling because there are too many houses and not enough buyers
- A couple accidentally shipped their cat in an Amazon return package. It arrived safely 6 days later, hundreds of miles away.
- India Inc marks slowest quarterly revenue growth in January-March 2024: Crisil
- Nothing Phone (2a) India-exclusive Blue Edition launched starting at ₹19,999
- SC refuses to plea seeking postponement of CA exams scheduled in May
- 10 exciting weekend getaways from Delhi within 300 km in 2024
- Foreign tourist arrivals in India will cross pre-pandemic level in 2024