The more you sit, the unhealthier it is for your body

You love exercise and thrive with movement, but do you end up feeling tired and physically uncomfortable at the end of your work day?

This is a common frustration of many professionals who work in an office, even if exercising outside of work hours. The result is often back issues and lethargy from sitting too much for too long.

Humans are not biologically designed to be sedentary. The more you sit, the unhealthier it is for your body.
Elisa Terry – Program Director of the UCLA Recreation Fitwell Program.

In fact, health experts have compared sitting down for 8 hours per day, 5 days per week as the equivalent to smoking. A shocking truth when we might consider ourselves fit and healthy!

Studies show that when we stand and move:

● Our general well-being is elevated, and our muscle activity is 2.5 times higher than when we sit (1)
● Our oxygen consumption is increased by 30%, raising our metabolic rate (2)
● Standing for an extra 4 hours per day, burns an extra 73,000 calories per year (2)

All great reasons to get up, stand and move more!



An easy way to achieve these benefits is to introduce a stand-up desk into the workplace. Designed with the user’s health in mind, Melbourne based couple, Daniel and Nadia Angelini, have created the MOVI Stand-Up Desk which is functional, safe and stylish.

“Our bodies are designed for movement, so sitting down for eight hours in a day isn’t natural for us at all. Spending 11-plus hours a day sitting down increases our risk of disease by over 140 per cent. Our mission is to create healthier workplaces” explains Daniel (3,4).

MOVI is the most ergonomic and spacious desk top add-on and is crafted with a natural wood benchtop for durability and sustainability. It is electric, allowing you to sit and stand effortlessly with the touch of a button and it comes fully assembled.

“You can sit and stand at the touch of a button. MOVI has been designed to make it as easy as possible to adjust the height so you won’t strain your back” says Nadia.

The MOVI Standing Desk comes with natural wood benchtop and a choice of black or white legs and user interface.

After experiencing an injury, standing at work changed Daniel’s life, quite literally. He started incrementally for an hour a day, and then increased this up to 8 hours using a stand-up desk at the office. He felt stronger, and even if he missed a few workout sessions his fitness stayed level, his lower back issues decreased, and his afternoon slumps disappeared. Winding down after work became easier, and his sleep improved as he was spending energy exponentially throughout the day.

References 
1) Tikkanen O, Haakana P, Pesola AJ, et al 2013, ‘Muscle Activity and Inactivity Periods during Normal Daily Life’, PLoS One, vol. 8, no. 1.
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3548884/>

2) Alberts B, Johnson A, Lewis J, et al 2002, ‘How Cells Obtain Energy from Food’, Molecular Biology of the Cell, 4th edition.
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26882/> 

3) van der Ploeg HP, Chey T, Korda RJ, et al 2012, ‘Sitting Time and All-Cause Mortality Risk in 222 497 Australian Adults’, Archives of Internal Medicine, vol. 172, no. 6, pp. 494-500. <http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1108810>

4) Wilmot EG, Edwardson CL, Achana FA, et al 2012, ‘Sedentary time in adults and the association with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and death: systematic review and meta-analysis’, Diabetologia 2012 November, vol. 55, no. 11, pp. 2895-905.
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22890825>