Don't just sit there, get moving!

So sitting can kill you, eh? You may have seen articles about how sitting, a restful activity, has become a potential killer. In the workplace, products are starting to show up to help workers deal with that new threat. First some background from the linked interview:

• "…women who were inactive and sat over six hours a day were 94 percent more likely to die during the time period studied than those who were physically active and sat less than three hours a day."
• "…men who were inactive and sat the same amount of time were 48 percent more likely to die than their standing counterparts."

Workers don't have to sit the whole day anymore because new products are coming out to change the situation. Those product designs include working your core, a focus of Martin Keen, CEO and founder of Focal Upright, North Kingstown, Rhode Island. He said "the best way is for them to discover their physicality because they’re having to keep their core slightly engaged, which just makes you feel more human again."

While Keen focuses on workspace design, physical movement is clearly relevant to healthy workers. I came across an article about the benefits of Nordic walking that include working your core because of the requirement to stand upright, the posture Keen tries to incorporate in his designs.

Poles

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A healthy workforce = a healthy society

As recently as 2012, absence from work due to illness was still at problem levels (7.7 days per year) in the United Kingdom. Estimated costs to the economy ranged from £13.2 billion to £32 billion every year.

What does this have to do with Nordic walking? If we review the benefits of Nordic walking posted in this blog and on Facebook at Nordic Walking Guy, we'll see how this all around activity improves people's health. Here are some additional thoughts about the workplace:

• Workers may be constrained by time. Nordic walking can be very time efficient because its full body nature activates more muscles at the same time. This can provide great returns from a lunch time walk.
• Sometimes people need some break or down time to socialize with colleagues. Since the pace of Nordic walking makes conversation, colleagues can set out on a walk together.
• Step counting is becoming popular in the workplace.  I have many colleagues who use some kind of fitness monitor to count their steps. However, workers may want some of those steps to be at a higher intensity. Nordic walking can increase that intensity.