You're Doing Everything Right. Why Aren't the Numbers Moving?

It’s so annoying!

I could be deep in concentration, doing focused work (like writing this piece), and “bzzt!” my Apple Watch notifies me, “Time to stand!”

Turns out, my watch is looking out for me…..

In a recent study​, researchers ran a 12-week randomized controlled trial using 86 office workers with a typical lifestyle: more than 6 hours a day in a chair, less than 150 minutes of exercise a week.

They split the group in half. The control group kept doing what they were doing. The intervention group did one new thing....

Every hour, from 9 AM to 5 PM, they stood up and moved for 3 minutes. Seven breaks a day. Three minutes each. No leaving the office. No equipment--lunges at the desk, marching in place, a quick walk to the water cooler and back, squats while reading email…..

Total added movement: about 21 minutes a day.

After 12 weeks--without changing their diet or their workouts--here’s what happened:

• Fasting blood sugar dropped

• Insulin resistance improved significantly

• Waist circumference shrank by about 2 cm

• Blood pressure fell

• HDL — the “good” cholesterol — ticked up

• Energy and work productivity both improved

Every cardiometabolic marker moved in the right direction from 21 minutes a day of simply standing up and moving.

They didn’t train more. They sat less.

Why It Works

Think of your bloodstream like a river. Every time you eat, sugar flows in. Your muscles are supposed to pull that sugar out--but they only do that when they’re contracting.

When you sit for two unbroken hours, the river keeps rising, and your pancreas works overtime to manage the flood. When you do that 8 hours a day for years, the system gets exhausted.

That’s how an otherwise healthy person ends up with blood sugar problems.

Maybe that’s the issue for one of our clients who has Type-2 diabetes. He had dramatic blood sugar improvements when he started training, but his body’s response has plateaued....and he has a desk job......hmmm……

Just three minutes of movement every hour tells your muscles to start pulling sugar back out of the river. It doesn’t matter that the breaks are short.

What matters is that they’re frequent.

My Apple Watch is on the right track, but standing isn’t enough.

You need to move.

Here’s how to put this practice in motion....(see what I did there?)

• Set a recurring alarm at the top of every hour, 9 AM to 5 PM--seven alarms total.

• When it goes off, stand up and move for 3 minutes. Anything counts—squats, marching in place, a lap around the office...I often water the plants or go to the mailbox.

• Keep doing your workouts!

• Track it for at least two weeks before judging it.

The gym was never going to be enough by itself when the rest of your day is spent in a chair.

Three minutes.

Every hour!