What Does it Take to Be Neat? - we are working on new material all the time!

No, not clean and tidy neat, but N.E.A.T. as an acronym (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis). Scientists say that in studying lipoprotein lipase regulation in skeletal muscle, sitting vs. standing; inactivity or sitting, may be associated with a 90-95% higher risk of negative metabolic changes; cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome risk factors, and obesity. Neat accounts for a much greater portion of total daily Standing at your deskenergy expenditure than your brief stents in the gym. The implications of this leave me to appreciate a job that allows me to be standing, sitting, and walking during my work day.

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits experimented last year in which he gave up 12 things, one each month of the year. Sitting for greater than 30 minutes at a time is number two. This is by design for physical benefits. He claims failure, but I say it was a huge success. His overall activity increased for that month. If your purpose is to change one thing, subconsciously, you will change more based on micro-actions or baby steps on this blog. After some research on this topic, the evidence seems to show great health benefits. I mean, I merely wanted to mitigate the effects of prolonged sitting. Many times, realizing after many hours of research, writing, or procrastination, (mostly procrastination) I hadn’t gotten up for a break from sitting on the computer screen. Not good, and my lower back told me so.

1. Standing as a matter of productivity First and very important, standing when you need to get stuff done. Productivity is a recurring requirement of a successful business. To me, sitting at a desk lends itself to procrastination. If I’m doing some manual labor or physical tasks, it’s easier for me to go from one thing to the other with little procrastination. Put me at a desk, I get relaxed and usually will slip into poor posture, forgetting all I learned in kindergarten. Add Facebook, Google+, and Youtube, I can fritter away hours. Not productive, mostly. I’m learning to schedule time for those activities. Since this section deals with productivity, here are some ideas I try to discipline myself to do. I select times when my body and mind are less alerted, like at night for surfing. I’m a morning person, and that’s when I’m most productive. If I’m in production mode, I can focus best in the early part of a day. Some desk-bound working folk I follow on the web, mainly entrepreneurs working from home talked about the benefits they experienced after trying standing at their desk. The main theme I got from their experience in regards to productivity was the focus and increased clarity. My blogging instructor, David Risley says he gets more work done. When I read that some reported being more alert and less sleepy, they had me. Unless I’m engaged in my project, I can tend to get sleepy, even in the early morning, my usual time for action. “Perhaps the greatest benefit of a standing workstation for computer work is the ability to change posture, which varies muscle activity [and] should reduce fatigue.” Paul Schwab, a board-certified ergonomist and the Ergonomics Program Manager for Texas Instruments.

2. Standing or like low-level activity as it regards health Can stand to be good for you? According to some recent studies… yes. A recent Pew Research study reported that the number of Americans who stand daily has dropped 32 percent in the last decade. This is no doubt a consequence of our evolving technological age. Obese individuals appear to exhibit an innate tendency to be seated for 2.5 hours per day more than their sedentary lean counterparts. It is common knowledge that a sedentary lifestyle is associated with a short, less healthy life. Before I started snooping around, I believed this to be, “those other people”. You know… not you, the folks who won’t spare 30 minutes a day for their health, get out and exercise… walk, anything. Well, as it turns out, the “active lifestyle” or 3 to 5 times a week exercise is only partially true. What this means… is that those folks who do not take the time to exercise are truly sedentary right? Not necessarily. Why? Inactivity the rest of the week may leave you at risk. It’s all types of non-exercise activity the rest of the week, including while at work, that makes for an active lifestyle. This is where standing at your desk while you work for health comes in. As a result, the difference between sitting and standing may be huge. Of course, this all depends on what you are doing the rest of the day. If you sit at a desk all day long, you’re screwed. Unless again, if you stand alternatively at your desk. If you haven’t been introduced to the concept of N.E.A.T. or non-exercise activity thermogenesis, then here it is. Neat refers to all the activities you do while not “exercising”. Back to our question; is a person who does not partake in structured exercise living a sedentary lifestyle? The answer, is no, not necessarily! As far as energy output goes, Neat accounts for a much greater portion of total daily energy expenditure than your brief stents in the gym. “In theory, this may be in part because nonexercise activity thermogenesis is generally a much greater component of total energy expenditure than exercise or because any type of brief, yet frequent, muscular contraction throughout the day may be necessary to short-circuit unhealthy molecular signals causing metabolic diseases.” James A. Levine and associates Mayo Clinic, St. Mary’s Hospital Do I believe there are multiple benefits with short 30-minute to two-hour stents in the gym… you bet… This is merely another example of the power and opportunity you have at your fingertips to positively affect your health and avoid preventable diseases. “Because of the enormity of the problem of obesity in society and because of the magnitude of the NEAT deficit, we suggest designing and evaluating both, personal behavioral approaches and re-engineered environments to promote active life.” James A. Levine and associates Mayo Clinic, St. Mary’s Hospital
I fully plan on re-engineering my home office environment with a standing desk.

3. Finally, standing as it relates to posture. Lessons From Kindergarten We’ve all been taught since kindergarten that correct posture while sitting is important for the body, but we weren’t taught to stay there. Well, the same principle applies to standing. In my mind instabilities or misalignment can occur to a greater extent due to total body involvement while standing. Correct posture or neutral spine is achieved when the natural curves in our upper (cervical), middle (thoracic), and lower (lumbar) back are maintained. This posture ensures correct alignment of bones and joints; allowing for the least stress on the body, optimizing breathing, and circulation, and as we talked about above facilitates NEAT (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis) while standing. Our purpose here is to examine the role of sedentary behaviors, especially sitting, on health. So, as with every area of life, you want moderation here as with all things. “Standing all day is associated with increased risks of back pain, varicose veins, foot pain, and cardiovascular problems—the heart has to work harder….The best strategy is some of both.” Professor Alan Hedge, the Director of the Human Factors and Ergonomics

>