{"id":17957,"date":"2013-09-24T11:19:03","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T15:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=17957"},"modified":"2014-09-09T09:39:43","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T13:39:43","slug":"chairish-your-bum-stand-up-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2013\/09\/24\/chairish-your-bum-stand-up-for-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Chairish your bum: Stand up for it"},"content":{"rendered":"The hardest part about transitioning from the summer back to school for me this semester was getting used to the prolonged sitting. My legs which were once free to pound the hot summer pavement were suddenly cramped behind someone\u2019s seat and became laptop padding during my first 3 hour lecture.\r\n\r\nIt was unbearable: my legs felt restless, my bum felt numb and my back was uncomfortably glued to the back of my seat\u2014I just wanted to stand and walk around!\r\n\r\nAs this week wore on, I subjected myself to more and more sitting\u2014reading, lectures, meetings\u2026 and by the end, I went from feeling restless to lethargic.\u00a0 Just how much more sitting was I doing as a student compared to the summer? I made a line graph with estimated (and possibly exaggerated) data:\r\n\r\n\"graph13\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s not uncommon knowledge that prolonged sitting is bad for you. Research shows that prolonged sitting increases risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality1<\/sup><\/a>, kidney disease2<\/sup><\/a>, and reduces mental well-being3<\/sup><\/a> and alertness4<\/sup><\/a> among other things. Sitting wasn\u2019t only figuratively killing me; it was literally doing it too.\r\n\r\nBut as a student, it\u2019s inevitable that at some point I\u2019ll have to sit down because that\u2019s part of the job.\r\n\r\nOut of evolutionary sensibility to stay alive, I decided to research and experiment with ways to reduce the negative impacts of prolonged sitting (The obvious one is exercise and frequent standing breaks5<\/sup><\/a>, which I already do, so we won\u2019t bother with those). I\u2019ll divulge my results here:\r\n\r\n1. Sitting on an Exercise Ball<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe exercise ball has been marketed to office workers as a way to sneakily burn calories while sitting. Exercise ball sellers claim that sitting on one forces you to make small adjustments constantly to keep yourself balanced \u2013 thus activating your abs6<\/sup>.<\/a> However, the medical community is still inconclusive<\/a>7<\/a>\u00a0<\/sup>about whether exercise ball chairs are beneficial or deleterious to health.\r\n\r\nRating: 3 bums out of 5 chairs<\/i>\r\n\r\n\"exerciseball1\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nIt was alright. It made me move around a lot more because I would stand up and stretch whenever I wanted to lean back. It was also fun to bounce on it whenever I was trying to figure a problem out. However, it\u2019s not the most comfortable seat.\r\n\r\n2. Walking on a treadmill while reading<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\"treadmill1\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nRating: 4 bum<\/i>s<\/i>\u00a0out of 5 chairs<\/i>\r\n\r\nI can\u2019t afford a fancy treadmill desk so I used one at Hart House and walked on it while I did some readings. It\u2019s not a bad idea for an hour or two, and I actually felt more concentrated once I got used to my environment. The downside is trying to highlight or write anything. This method would be more useful for studying.\r\n\r\n3. Friendly Pedometer Challenge\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\nRating: 2 bums out of 5 chairs\"pedometer1\"<\/a><\/i>\r\n\r\nMy friend and I put on pedometers at the beginning of the day and whoever put in the most steps had to buy the other a pint at the end of the day. Let me tell you how distracting this challenge was: I thought of ways to lengthen my route to class, took more walking breaks than necessary and spent more time running at the gym. I think this method is a great way to get someone to start thinking of ways to be more active\u2026 but not necessarily be more productive as a student.\r\n\r\nOh. I also lost to my friend. Maybe I\u2019m just bitter.\r\n\r\nWhat other methods do you use? What other methods should I experiment with? Let me know your thoughts!\r\n\r\n\u00a0<\/b>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\nThe hardest part about transitioning from the summer back to school for me this semester was getting used to the prolonged sitting. My legs which were once free to pound the hot summer pavement were suddenly cramped behind someone\u2019s seat…\n<\/div>
Continue reading “Chairish your bum: Stand up for it”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
Continue reading “Chairish your bum: Stand up for it”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1758,1,67,68],"tags":[88,10977,10978,10981,10976,10980,10979,25506,89,1883],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17957"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17957"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18165,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17957\/revisions\/18165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}