Everyday Systems

Yeah, so I wasn't sure this goes under Urban Ranging but:

I've started standing whenever I can instead of sitting and interestingly it makes a huge difference. Yesterday, I stood and moved for about 4 to 5 hours instead of sitting so that was on top of my normal movement (about 1 hour walking to and from work) and I felt quite tired at the end of the day and my muscles nearly felt as if I'd been to the gym. Now, I also make a point of stretching whenever I take a coffee break now, which helps too.

It all started when my colleague sent me an article about standing desks and I wish I could have one although unfortunately my office is the kind of office that is last when it comes to support healthy choices.

I stand now:
- Watching TV (yep, that's the big one)
- Any break I can get at work
- On the train commuting back (50 minutes per day)
- During lunch (I know this one is contentious as they always say to sit down to enjoy your food but I actually enjoy it standing still just as much. I'm not rushing so I don't see how that would be worse than sitting but others may disagree).

I also move more as I'm already standing so it's easy to start stretching or walking from there as there is no mental barrier, which I do admit to having when I'm sitting. Once I sit I don't want to move.

I feel more alert during the day and more tired at the end of the day and I slept extremely well yesterday.

That's a cool idea eschano. I particularly like the standing to watch tv. It would possibly also naturally limit the length of time a person could watch tv for, which I'm sure would also help. When I eventually go back to a desk job I'll definitely consider some version of Standing Ranger

From doing a bit of reading it seems the key is changing positions regularly - being sedentary is the problem. I've seen the recommendation of standing for 2 minutes every 20 minutes, but that seems like it would be disruptive to workflow. Not a problem for me these days - baby plus toddler keeps me on my toes.

Yes, I bet you don't have this problem at the moment. I sit on a desk for 7 hours a day followed by sitting in the train, for dinner, and for watching an episode or two of a good series.

I do walk about 1-1 1/2 hours a day, I take the stairs quite a bit because I'm blessed with a super small bladder and a massive thirst for water but it's just dangerous to become too sedentary for me. So now I'm trying to cut down on sitting time.

Our TV is currently broken, which is lovely as we've been spending more time in the garden and also reading (which again is sedentary but at least it doesn't make me munch on food).

The main change I've instituted is to stand every single time I make/take a call. Which is frequent and although my colleagues are looking at me weirdly it works for me. Also, at home when I'm having a text conversation or Skype I now stand. It adds about 1 hour of standing to my day broken up. Little changes so far but I hope they'll accumulate.

This is interesting.
I don't think my patiënts would be impressed if I stood at my desk though.
But my job does mean that though I seem to be sitting at a desk all day. I stand up to go get a patient, I sit down to talk to them, then I stand up again to examine them, sit down to explain/finish, stand up to get the next patient etc. Plus if there are house calls I make a point to do them on foot or by bike. (there are a few which are too far away to do by bike, well I don't think they're too far away, but I'm an employee, so it's not my tilme to choose what to do with).

Great idea But I'm naturally kind of a lazy cat who will sit at any opportunity I might give this a try though. I saw something on TV about the usefulness of adding more NEAT to your every day life (someone said it might actually be more important than formal exercise, but I don't remember the details) the program I saw also said that if you have to sit all day for work, getting up for a few minutes every hour is enough to counteract the negative effects of prolonged sitting, I imagine that would be tricky for a truck driver, but those of us working in offices can probably manage to get up once an hour.

Laurence Morehouse, who was the fitness consultant for the space program way back when, advocated being on your feet for at least three hours a day, which could include playing a sport. (Apropos of the times, he talked about golf and tennis for men, but women getting their exercise taking care of a three-bedroom house, presumably for parents and two children.)

Don't know if this would work for your work atmosphere, but a proponent of standing up at work said a relatively easy and cheap way to raise the desk is to go to a yard sale and buy an appropriately-sized coffee table to put on top of the desk.