Right Steps

How much time each day do you spend sitting? Almost half I bet. For over twenty years my answer would have been something around 10 hours...and it was the worst kind of sitting: nearly motionless, hunched over a keyboard.

Why did I do that? There were certainly plenty of signs telling me sitting was unhealthy. From numbness in my legs and butt, to lower back pain, lethargy, and attention deficits, my mind-body was certainly telling me that sitting was hurting me. So why did I do that...for twenty plus years??

I sat because that was what people did. At work: cubicles and offices with chairs. At home: rooms with chairs and sofas. At play: more chairs - in theaters, restaurants, etc. Even public transportation: you fought for a seat...to...sit. All this sitting made people physically and mentally suffer...but we all did it. We sat because everybody sat.

Now, I'm not saying there weren't people moving. Plenty of people, including myself, loved to exercise. Running was my preferred exercise. I lived in NYC and if you went to Central Park you saw all manner of movement. The problem was that our movement was too short, too infrequent; it was a footnote (no pun intended) to all the sitting we did. Too short to make up enough of the time of the day to even matter, too infrequent to become a practice.

So we sat. I sat. For twenty years. And then one day I was trying to find anything by my favorite author Neal Stephenson - and came across his essay "Arsebestos". In it he writes openly about how many years he spent writing, in a chair - how he slowly developed chronic pain - how his ability to focus began to suffer. I swear to you that the moment I finished this essay, I began to research walking treadmills. Two days later I had ordered one. One month later was the last day I sat at a desk and worked.

Baby Steps

My second bet is that you're at least somewhat familiar with the subject of sitting as a public health issue. Radio, news, and the web report that sitting is the new smoking. Seems to me we hear a lot about it actually. But, just like I pointed out in Right Syrup, we have NOT taken the discussion far enough. If sitting is the new smoking, then Standing is NOT the cure. Working at a standing desk is marginally better than sitting - and since standing still for long periods of time comes with its own health issues...logically speaking it should be considered no better than sitting.

The problem with standing is the same problem with sitting. The core issue is still there: Not Moving. When you stand, same as when you sit, for even 30 minutes, your circulatory system...that is normally really good at eliminating toxins and spreading oxygenated blood and tons of other good stuff...that system essentially starts to malfunction. And what's worse, the nature of the malfunction causes the system to act Against your body. We simply were not designed - as organisms - to be non-moving for long periods of time.

The one place standing desks have in our path to Right Steps, is to get us up off our butts and get us seeing that we Can Work without sitting, that we can eat without sitting, that we can do all the things...without sitting. But that's the only place it has - a catalyst for change. If you stop sitting, but then stand still all day...then you're not done. You've got more work to do.

Right Steps

When my walking treadmill arrived, I made a stubborn, willful, awesome decision: I literally got rid of my chair. This meant I was all in. There was no going back - at least symbolically speaking. So I started walking and working. I would arrive at my desk, and start the treadmill at 1 mph. This was so slow that there was no issue with being able to type or make fine motor movements with the mouse. Walking treadmills are designed to be whisper quiet, so there was no issue having speakerphone conference calls. Literally, I started one day...and I've never stopped.

Walking treadmill advocates suggest starting off at around 1 mph, and then slowly increasing speed a little each week until you find the right speed for what you do. For me, I worked up to 2.5 mph and there I've remained. But even at 1 mph, think about it: by the end of your work day you've accumulated somewhere around 8 miles! Every time I think about the miles that just keep adding up I feel like I'm being giving them for free - as in I don't notice I've walked all that distance.

But I have walked all that distance. Every work day. I move the whole day. After I started doing the walking treadmill I ceased researching about it...the results were obvious. My mind was no longer the only thing functioning throughout the day - which is incredibly draining. My body was engaged simultaneously with my mind...and you know what...my mind began to function at an even higher level. My creativity increased. I never felt that "dragging" feeling early afternoon. And all the aches and pains that I had become accustomed to, they faded away.

DIY

I recognize that I had a luxury. I worked from my home office. I created a wicked cool setup where I mounted all my monitors to the wall at just the right height. I created a small desk-on-desk that literally sits on top of my desk, with plenty of surface area for my stuff (keyboard, mouse, water bottle, phone, etc.). It's pretty sweet. But all that ain't necessary. It is possible to create a Walking Desk from a stack of books and a sturdy cardboard box. That plus walking in place and you have yourself the Real Solution. Is there really anything stopping you...other than what other people are doing?

Conclusion

I was originally planning this post to be an in-depth article about the work I've been doing with Blockchain (the tech behind Cryptocurrency). Instead I was inspired to share what I've experienced getting rid of chairs. I hope this post inspires some change in the amount of time we spend sitting. If it does that will be wicked good.