HEALTH
You shouldn’t take this sitting down…
RICHARD BERCUSON
I am writing this seated. As a result, I will die. Earlier than I’d planned and probably
with a numb bum. For I, like millions of others, have sitting
disease. According to the Mayo Clinic (no, it’s
not where the white sauce is made), my life expectancy would increase by two hours per day if I cut my daily sitting to three hours or less. I’d gain 1.4 years if I cut it to two hours per day. This is cause for concern on so many
levels. Think for a moment about how many activities require us to sit and what would happen if we stood instead. Fishing. I’m not a fisherman, though
I stand when I buy fish at the supermarket. Fishing is done sitting down. I figure if our forebears had stood in their fishing boats instead of sitting, they’d all have lived longer. Add two years to each generation since, oh, 1800, and most of us wouldn’t have been born till around 2079. By then we’d have apps to talk to fish and convince them it was much less painful to just jump into the bucket and be done with it. Now we won’t live to see that. Hunting. A friend’s son went hunting two
summers ago, sat in a tree waiting for his prey, then fell out of it. He badly mangled one arm and cut open his noggin. This would not have occurred had he just stood beside the tree. It also would not have occurred if he hadn’t been rip-roaring hammered.
Motorcycles. Sitting
on a bike and feeling the warmth and vibrative power of the machine beneath you is a singular excitement. (Yes, you can replicate those sensations with smaller toys but I bet they lack the verve.) If you’re one of those people who spends hours toodling about the countryside on your bike, those same hours are chopping your lifespan to bits. Standing to drive a
motorcycle isn’t too practical right now. Bug and wind deflectors aren’t nearly high enough. Even the handlebars on choppers won’t suffice. What we’d need is the equivalent of a motorized Segway. These are samples of
recreational activities. What’s really killing us are our daily activities and jobs. One web site said that to
8 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
continued on page 32
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