Standing Room Only

“The times, they are a changing.” – Bob Dylan

And our hearts are glad!

It’s National Heart Month and it turns out, one of the worst things for your heart is “oversitting.”  In our effort to be a super-humanly productive techie nation, we’ve taken a hit in our posture, lung capacity and general mood.

To stem the negative tide, it appears the software development world is ahead of the game, already doing what the rest of us are just thinking about to avoid the endless parking of tokhes (behinds).  When polled, 78% of these companies said they held daily stand-up-meetings.

“Stand-up meetings are part of a fast-moving tech culture in which sitting has become synonymous with sloth. The object is to eliminate long-winded confabs where participants pontificate, play Angry Birds on their cellphones or tune out.”

Let’s imagine this in other industries.  Nonprofit or otherwise, picture every committee or board meeting you can bring to mind.  Well heck, why not even picture Congress?

We might be on our way there.  Picture First Lady, Michelle Obama doing pushups with 81-year old Archbishop Desmond Tutu on a visit to South Africa.  It really happened.  Then again weeks later on the Ellen show — and they both had mighty fine form.

Imagine if it was quid-pro-quo to “drop and do 20” every day with your colleagues or associates, no matter where, no matter who.

Soak up the new times and, at the very least, “Stand in the place where are.” (R.E.M.)

Below, check out Olga for this week’s idea of an exercise to undo sitting’s damage.

For You in Your Workplace:

This is the easiest FREE program you can initiate.  It’s probably the easiest policy change you can make as well.  It requires no equipment, no time, no hard sell to management (hopefully).  But, as the software article mentions, just be sure to make exceptions for those who are ill, pregnant or otherwise compromised.

Stand-up desks don’t have to be fancy or complicated.  Work with ergonomic specialists for tips on how to do it right, but a few books, boxes or inexpensive shelves could do the trick.

Olga Takes Stairs Climbing Up a Notch:

From Prevention Magazine, this 5 minute oxygen and muscle building activity is a winner.  Sometimes when we look at a flight a stairs we can only think about going up or down.  How about this instead…

1. Warm up by doing the flight normally once.
2. Walk slowly up sideways crossing the bottom foot over the top; walk normally down; walk up sideways the other direction; walk normally down.
3. Climb the steps 2 at a time.
4. Run up, walk down.
5. With the right foot, step up on the first step, then back down; do the same with the left foot; repeat 10 times.
6. Repeat the sequence.
7. Finish by stepping up in each step, holding and dipping down into a bit of a lunge (you can use two steps if it feels more comfortable).
8. Cool down by doing one flight normally.

See you on the standing PATH Ahead!