In today’s sedentary world, I feel like people are a lot more likely to sit for a week than the opposite.
So maybe no one really knew what to expect when a YouTuber decided to take on the experiment of not sitting for an entire week.
Spoiler alert: you can definitely have too much of a good thing.
YouTuber pigmie attempted to go seven entire days without sitting down at all – no couch, no chilling, no office chair, and even no toilet seat.
It first and foremost made everyday tasks like driving and working a lot harder, but he was committed to finding out what health benefits might be gained in the process.
“The average American sits for around 9.5 hours every single day, despite the fact that prolonged sitting and lack of physical activity has been correlated with obesity and a cluster of obesity-related conditions.”
Chronic sitting is associated with back pain, spinal trouble, joint degeneration, poor posture, and a whole host of other issues.
Sedentary lifestyles are also linked to reductions in brain volume and a shorter lifespan.
So there are a lot of reasons that people might benefit from less sitting – and the first positive impact pigmie noted was on his bowels.
“I felt like things were comfortably moving in the right direction.”
As the days wore on he felt the strain in his joints, his posture, and also his energy level, and he discontinued the experiment after five whole days.
On the downside, he found he’d developed a more pronounced slouch.
There were upsides, though, like an improvement in the shape of his lower spine and he also found that he was more productive at work (at least in the morning).
So yeah. The biggest benefit was keeping “regular” through the week.
“I felt like my digestion was so much better with more standing up in the day. It just seemed like things got moving faster and smoother.”
You can have too much of a good thing, but standing and moving should be a regular part of everyone’s day.
So close the laptop, put down the phone, and go for a walk.
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a quantum computer simulation that has “reversed time” and physics may never be the same.