I came across this quote while researching the effects of active video games and immediately leapt up from my desk in fear. It appeared in the NSCA’s Strength & Conditioning Journal entitled: Nothing Bad Can Happen Sitting in Front of the TV. Right? (1)
[R]ecent evidence (2) suggests that ‘‘sedentary time’’ may be an independent factor in predicting health outcomes. Active individuals (defined as those engaging in at least 2.5 hours of moderate to vigorous exercise a week), who spend long periods of time being sedentary, exhibit increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, a higher incidence of type 2 diabetes and obesity, and abnormal glucose tolerance when compared with individuals who do not exhibit less sedentary behavior.
Now that it’s common for me to sit for three-hour stretches at a time in my classes, and for these inactive stretches to continue well into the night as I work on assignments, it’s vital that I break up my school/study/relaxation time with moments of intense, active living. Off the top of my head, here are some strategies I can use to counteract the negative affects of ‘sedentary time’:
(1) Nothing Bad Can Happen Sitting in Front of the TV. Right? Strength & Conditioning Journal. 31(3):75-76, June 2009.
(2) Genevieve NH, Dunstan DW, Salmon J, Shaw JE, Zimmet PZ, and Owen N. Television time and continuous metabolic risk in physically active adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc 40: 639–645, 2008.
goose
2 years ago
Well, I don’t think YOU have anything to worry about. I would estimate that you spend at least 10 hours a day engaging in “moderate to vigorous exercise”, which is in a class of its own. And really, 2.5 hours a week is all that’s required now to qualify as “active”? That’s a little pathetic.
I am also a bit suspicious of the article in general. By how much is the risk increased? And is it really the “sedentary time” that’s to blame, or simply less active time (by definition, anyone who’s engaged in more sedentary time, has less active time). Perhaps it is fine to spend long periods of time sedentary as long as you also spend a lot of time exercising (and not the measly 2.5 hours). I’m not saying sedentary behaviour is not harmful on its own – it well may be – but one needs to read the study to know if they really showed that.
And then this quote: “Active individuals … who spend long periods of time being sedentary, exhibit increased risk of [bad things happening] when compared with individuals who do not exhibit less sedentary behavior.”
“Do not exhibit less sedentary behaviour”? That’s a double negative, meaning “exhibit as much or more sedentary behaviour”. In other words, they are saying “active individuals who spend a long time sedentary, are more likely to get sick when compared to individuals who are at least as sedentary”? Somebody in that journal needs a proofreader.
goose
2 years ago
From the article’s abstract: “Analyses were adjusted for … total physical activity time”. Ah, good, at least they did that. Still, I don’t really understand it, because there are only two things that could be happening at any given moment:
1) the individual is engaging in physical activity, or
2) the individual is not engaging in physical activity (i.e., sedentary).
Also, each individual has the same number of hours per day. So, it’s not possible to have two people active for the same amount of time per week AND have one of them spend more time being sedentary. So they may have adjusted for total hours of moderate to vigorous physical activity, rather than total physical activity – but that’s silly, since everyone knows that light physical activity is beneficial as well.
But there is also another possibility. After all, they were NOT measuring total time spent being sedentary. They were measuring total time spent watching TV! Those who spend little time watching TV may have spend lots of time being sedentary in other ways: playing on their computer, or studying etc. So the association is not between health problems and sedentary time. It’s between health problems and watching TV. Big difference.
Here is my hypothesis: people who spend a lot of time watching TV are stupid, unhappy and have no life (I have very low opinion of watching lots of TV… a bit of TV is okay and even good every now and then, cause they do show good stuff sometimes, but lots of TV is practically a clinical sypmtom of stupidity and/or extreme lack of interests in life). And we all know that boredom, disappointment in life and low intelligence lead to poorer health (both directly, because stress caused by overall unhappiness is hard on your body, and through things like poor nutritoin choices, poor exercise choices etc.) These people are also more likely to overstate time they spend exercising per week, because they are embarassed of being such lazy bums and spending their free time on what even they recognize (or at least vaguely feel) is one of the stupidest and saddest activities imaginable.
This Week in Tweets: October 30, 2009
2 years ago
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