Wellbeing Week starts on 8 September and features a wealth of workshops and information sessions from leading health experts to help you improve your wellbeing.
To give you a taste of what’s to come, we asked Dr Taryn Jones – physiotherapist and lecturer in the Department of Health Professions within MQ Health – to share a preview of her seminar ‘Breaking the Big Sit’.
Australians spend most of their adult life at work. In Australia, office workers comprise one of the largest occupational groups – about 12 per cent of all Australian workers. It is estimated that the average office worker spends about 75 per cent of their working day sitting, equating to a massive 80,000 hours over the course of their working life. We no longer need to walk to get a file, it can be accessed with a couple of clicks at our desk. We no longer need to walk to talk to a colleague, or to give them a document – we can simply email them.
When we really pay attention to it, I think we all recognise that we are sitting more now than we have ever done in the history of humanity. Globally, we are seeing a massive shift away from being more physically active to being more sedentary. This increase in sedentary behaviour crosses all the domains of our life – transport, leisure time, and work. We sit to watch TV, we sit in our cars and we sit at our computers. But what we are now starting to understand is the significant impact that this is having on our health and wellbeing.
Time spent sitting has now been shown to be associated with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and early mortality. Prolonged sedentary time is also associated with an increase in musculoskeletal disorders, such as neck pain, with prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders as high as 50 per cent in computer users. These factors can have an impact on employee morale, productivity and wellbeing.
The science of sedentary behaviour is still a new and emerging field. However, what we are starting to understand is that not all sitting is the same. Scientists are now finding that it is the prolonged bouts of sitting, rather than just the overall time, that are really detrimental to health. While studies are still being conducted to understand this further, it does appear that simply breaking up prolonged bouts of sitting can have a beneficial effect on blood glucose and blood lipid levels.
Changing postures can also reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders and pain. So, the message for the workplace is the same as anywhere else – “move more and sit less”. A few simple changes to our daily habits in the workplace can make a big difference overall. So maybe stand up to take that phone call, introduce a walking meeting with a colleague, or maybe just think twice before you hit that send button on that email. Try and break your “big sit”.
Register now to join Taryn at her lunchtime seminar ‘Breaking the Big Sit’ on Friday 9 September as part of Wellbeing Week. She’ll present the latest research on sitting and share more simple ways you can build activity into your day.
Looking to be more active? Visit the Macquarie University Medibank Be Better Portal.
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