January  2008

Just Stand Up!

Many of us cite our busy lives as reasons why we don’t exercise. The advice of some researchers at the University of Missouri is to just stand up.

Marc Hamilton, associate professor of biomedical sciences and his colleagues hope to encourage people to be more active in their daily routines. They specifically suggest performing household chores or office tasks like typing on the computer while standing. Hamilton notes that both Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson used standing desks. Standing and pacing while talking on the phone, or standing to watch a child’s ballgame are other
examples cited by Hamilton.

Through their research, Hamilton and colleagues are looking at the way the body uses fat. Their findings indicate that using leg muscles to stand or move about increases the body’s ability to use stored fat for fuel. The opposite is also true—that the more we sit, the less fat we use. This supports earlier research that found people who are “jigglers” or who tend to tap their feet or jiggle their knees are be more active even when doing sedentary activities and are less likely to have difficulty maintaining a healthy weight than those of us who sit quietly.

Perhaps it is time to reevaluate some of our ‘labor saving’ devices and look for ways to add back some physical activity into our daily lives.