Facts: Sitting too much, in any form, is bad for your body. When you sit for too long, science has shown that you are on the road to weight gain, back and shoulder pain, poorer mental health, poor quality sleep and dangerous chronic conditions such as heart disease. But according to a new review of health studies supervised by Wuyou Sui, Ph.D., kinesiologist at Western University – and will soon be published in the journal Psychology for sports and exercise–There are really different ways to sit, and some are better than others. Read on for more of what these researchers discovered and how it relates to your own body and your overall sense of well-being. And if you fear that you are living an overly sedentary lifestyle, make sure you are aware of the only major side effect of sitting on the couch too much, according to a new study.
The review of studies focused on context where people lived a sedentary lifestyle, and specifically how these habits “correlated with a poorer hedonic well-being.” In other words, their research focuses on how we sit affects our sense of well-being – “an individual’s own evaluation of their quality of life”, according to the study – and how these feelings of satisfaction can affect our overall health. After all, how we look at ourselves, say researchers, will affect the decisions we make every day for the sake of our health. “Evaluating subjective well-being is important for painting an overall picture of health,” explains Sui.
The researchers note that the type of sitting that is most associated with a greater – and healthier – sense of well-being was sitting around other people and participating in conversations, or while doing something else that is otherwise productive or fulfilling. “The time spent hanging out, playing an instrument or reading showed positive relationships with well – being results,” the study said. “These results highlight the importance of considering the context or domain for [sedentary behavior] as it is [your sense of] well-being. “And for more ways to boost your mood, check out our list of 50 foods that make you look and feel better.
The survey also showed that when it comes to life satisfaction, the time you sit or choose not to sit is completely relative and unique to you. There is no set time that applies to everyone. “How much an individual sits in relation to how much they usually sit can have a greater impact on theirs [sense of] well-being than the total amount of sitting they do, the study notes.
So if you know that you are sitting less than you normally do, it is a bonus and you get stronger feelings of positivity and satisfaction.
“Our results revealed that increased screen time (eg, TV, computer use) was usually associated with poorer hedonic well-being,” the study concludes. So not all forms of sitting are the same, and you spend most of your time just watching TV or playing video games, science says that you feel worse about yourself, which can affect your health along the way. And for more news from the forefront of scientific research, make sure you are aware of the major side effects of going for a 1-hour walk, according to New Science.
