Take A Standing Break Every 20 Minutes To Keep Your Body Healthy

Take A Standing Break Every 20 Minutes To Keep Your Body Healthy

At this point we’re all aware that we sit way too much and we need to stand up and move around to stay healthy. If you’re looking for some exact numbers, New York Times writer and author Gretchen Reynolds suggests standing up every 20 minutes.

Photo by Anthony Majanlahti

Speaking with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, Reynolds lays it out pretty simply:

Reynolds recommends standing for two minutes every 20 minutes while desk-bound — even if you can’t move around your office. “That sounds so simple,” she tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross. “But that actually has profound consequences. If you can stand up every 20 minutes — even if you do nothing else — you change how your body responds physiologically.”

Standing up every 20 minutes might sound obnoxious, but it’s actually in line with the Pomodoro technique of productivity, and with a simple timer it’s easy to implement as part of your workday. Head over to NPR to listen to the interview and get a few more tidbits about the current science about healthy living.

Stand Up, Walk Around, Even Just for ’20 Minutes’ [NPR]


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