Do you sit for long hours? New study says couch potato life isn’t too bad. Here’s why
If you usually spend many hours sitting down for work or leisure, you are likely spending even more time on your bum during the pandemic. And as your legs turn numb and your posture crumbles, a little voice in your head might be screaming to get up and exercise.
But research has some good news for chair connoisseurs. Although physical activity is low, a new study found some people who live sedentary lifestyles either by choice or default are actually getting a workout of sorts — in their brains.
Researchers from Colorado State University found that older adults who spent the majority of their time sitting performed better on knowledge-based activities such as vocabulary, reading comprehension and reasoning tasks.
That’s because when people sit down for long hours at a time, they are likely engaging in educational activities that stimulate the brain, such as reading and doing puzzles, the study says.
The findings suggest the couch potato lifestyle isn’t all that bad, as long as baseline exercise is done from time to time. The study was published in September in the journal Psychology and Aging.
“There’s this big push within health and wellness that sitting is always bad for your body, that being a couch potato is not good,” study lead author Aga Burzynska, an assistant professor in the Colorado State University department of human development and family studies, said in a news release this month. “Although our earlier studies indicated that the brains of those who spend more time sitting may age faster, it seems that on the cognitive level, sitting time may also be meaningful.”
Past research has shown that increased exercise improves cardiovascular and metabolic health, but the tie between daily physical activity and cognitive health is more blurry — “especially in older adults,” Burzynska said.
“We know that as we grow older, even if we do not have any cognitive impairments, people aged 60 and up already show some decreases in speed, executive functioning, and memory,” she said. “Those decreases are totally within a normal range, but this study was looking to understand how our behaviors and habits may correlate with cognitive outcomes in older age.”
Previous studies have also depended on self-reported data to measure activity, which can be overestimated.
Instead, the new study involved 228 healthy adults between the ages of 60 and 80 wearing sensors on their hips for seven days to measure daily time spent sitting or doing activity of any intensity, according to the researchers.
Participants also had to complete 16 cognitive tests that involved selecting patterns, filling in blanks, identifying shapes and other tasks.
As expected, the results showed that adults who did more “moderate-to-vigorous activity had better speed, memory and reasoning abilities,” the release said.
However, the majority of participants spent less than 2.7% of their time doing such rigorous activity. Those adults who spent more time sitting performed better in vocabulary and reading comprehension tasks, or what experts call “crystallized” abilities.
But the researchers were clear: These findings don’t mean you should reduce exercise activity.
“I don’t think I would in any way suggest that we should engage in more sitting, but I think trying to be as physically active as possible and making sure that you get stimulated in your sedentary time — that it’s not just spent staring at the TV — that this combination might be the best way to take care of your brain,” Burzynska said.
“When you exercise, enjoy your exercise. Maybe sometimes think, ‘Yeah I’m going to go sit now and enjoy a really good book,’” she added.
This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 12:29 PM.
