Sitting is the New Smoking

Sitting is the new smoking. Dr. Dieter Breithecker, Head of the Federa Institute of Posture and Exercise and Posture, shared this provocative metaphor at the Design for Learning Showcase at Vantage Program facility on October 27. He cited these potential side-effects of sitting for more than 6 hours a day:

• ·         Obesity

• ·         Metabolic Syndrom

• ·         Mental Disorders

• ·         Auto-immune diseases

• ·         Cardiovascular Pathologies

• ·         Chronic Back Pain

• ·         Cancer

It turns out that traditional classrooms are the worst environments for our students’ bodies. A restrictive environment – one that discourages movement – has a negative impact on the brain and the body. Planned exercise – running, organized sports, dance – does not counteract the negative effects of prolonged sitting. Planned movements and organized sports simply don’t have the same effects as regular movement – the kind of movement human beings were designed to be constantly engaged in.

And if we don’t give students the movement options their bodies crave, they’re going to take them anyway! Dr. Breithecker shared a video of a classroom of young students. The students were presented with a problem. At first the students were motionless. Then, as the task required additional engagement to process the challenge, the bodies started to fidget. They rocked in their chairs, leaning back and risking toppling over, behavior that is the bane of most teachers’ existence. It turns out that mental processing and physical processing are entwined. 

Dr. Breithecker acknowledges that this behavior can be both dangerous and frustrating. The solution can be as simple as switching the traditional hard, stable chair for one that is requires students to stabilize themselves. Stools such as the Hokki stool “let students keep moving, while sitting still” (Kaplan Early Learning Company). And reframing this behavior as students’ need to process physically as well as mentally could result in teachers encouraging this “fidgety” behavior rather than restricting it.

And there are implications for adults as well. Those individuals whose work revolves around sitting at computers need to consider alternative seating and desk arrangements.

Refitting schools with movement stools and standing desks will take time and resources. In the meantime, teachers and students need to find ways to incorporate movement into their daily lives. The good news is that breaking free from sitting doesn’t require a patch or behavior modification therapy. It just requires that we embrace movement in ourselves and others.