How Much Exercise Balances the Health Risks of Sitting All Day?
Back in 2014, I wrote an article describing sitting as “the new smoking.” In my defense, I intended the phrase to be read in air quotes—even at the time, it seemed a bit hyperbolic. In the years since then, the panic over the health dangers of uninterrupted sitting time has receded. The science hasn’t really changed though. There’s still evidence that being stapled to your office chair all day is bad for you, in ways that even the most rigorous exercise routine might not be able to erase.
It’s that last part that remains controversial: the idea that sitting for ten hours is bad even if you, say, ran for two hours that morning. Over the years, studies have seesawed back and forth on the question of whether sufficient exercise is enough to erase the hazards of excessive sedentary time. In an upcoming issue of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the two sides square off in a formal point–counterpoint–rebuttal–counter-rebuttal debate.
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