Sitting is the New Smoking

Last week I was reading Jason Gay’s humorous article in The Wall Street Journal on the dangers of sitting while watching sports. The article was, of course, a riff on recent research that says sitting too much is bad for your health. Sitting, it seems is the new smoking. Researchers advise us to get up and move every once in a while.

Last week I was reading Jason Gay’s humorous article in The Wall Street Journal on the dangers of sitting while watching sports. The article was, of course, a riff on recent research that says sitting too much is bad for your health. Sitting, it seems is the new smoking. Researchers advise us to get up and move every once in a while. Mr. Gay’s article was, as always, excellent. He’s such a good writer that he can get me to read his stuff even when it’s about something I don’t particularly enjoy—like football. While going through “Sports Sitting Will Kill Us All,” two things jumped out at me between the chuckles.

The first was the sheer number of sports or sports-related programming to sit and watch. He lists: The games (football, basketball, baseball, golf, tennis, soccer, etc. etc.), the 90-hour draft, sports Twitter, fantasy team chit-chat. Who knew? Who has the time?

Who Stands Anymore?

The second thing was this comment:

“Who really stands anymore? The standing-room-only section? Golf fans? Friends watching friends compete in triathlons? Duke University?”

I found this so funny I immediately sat down and posted a suitably humorous comment below @jasongay’s article on The Wall Street Journal’s web site. Below is basically what I said with a few additions. In @WSJ comments are limited to a certain number of characters but my blog is not, so here goes:

Who really stands anymore? Are you kidding? While you’re focused on the game you may not notice that the person who jumps up and dashes out of the room at every commercial — or who isn’t sitting in the room at all — is your wife, girlfriend, or female partner. What’s she doing?  Hah! What isn’t she doing? She’s:

Letting out the cat Letting in the catPutting a load of laundry in the washer
Taking the laundry out an putting it in the dryer
Putting in another load of wash
Repeat
Running a “Hey, honey, while you’re up  . . . ” errand
Emptying the dishwasher
Loading the dishwasher
Putting chicken in the oven for dinner
Letting out the cat
Letting in the cat
Running a “Hey, honey, while you’re up . . . ” errand
Walking the dog
Peeling potatoes for dinner
Bringing you a bag of chips to add to your sedentary waistline
Folding laundry
Folding more laundry
Feeding the dog
Feeding the cat
Setting the table
Taking the chicken out of the oven
Mashing the potatoes and steaming the vegetables

And that’s if you don’t have kids. If you do have kids the list grows exponentially longer. It may never actually end. It certainly feels like it never ends.

Standing Room Only

So, do you ever wonder why women live longer? The answer is simple: We never sit down for long. Sometimes we don’t sit down at all. Look up from the game, Mr. Gay. Get a clue.

I would like to note one other thing while I’m at it. If men got up off the couch and helped with the housework every now and then, several things would happen. 1. Their wives would be happier 2. Their wives would be able to sit down occasionally—and maybe even get to watch some of the game. 3. The husbands would live longer. Enough said.I would like to note one other thing while I’m at it. If men got up off the couch and helped with the housework every now and then, several things would happen.

  1. Their wives would be happier
  2. Their wives would be able to sit down occasionally—and maybe even get to watch some of the game.
  3. More would get done
  4. The husbands would live longer.

Enough said, guys?

BTW: Several readers of The Wall Street Journal liked my comment. Hooray!