‘Sit Fit’ Talk to Address Office Inertia

11/30/2012 

A team of kinesiology students at SUNY Cortland refuses to take an anticipated lifetime of desk work sitting down.

Or, when they do sit down, they’ll remain active with an eye on a future blessed with well-being.

The students are ready to share their office exercise tips with faculty, staff and students at a sandwich seminar sponsored by Women’s Initiatives at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 5, in the Corey Union Exhibition Lounge.

Titled “Sit Fit: Exercises You Can Do at Your Desk,” the seminar aims to create a fun and informative experience to work one’s muscles while behind a desk.

“It’s going to be fully interactive,” said senior Colin Wilson, one of the kinesiology students who’s organizing the program.

The session will feature four personal trainers as well as Louise Mahar, the College’s assistant director of recreational sports for fitness. She enlisted the team of demonstrators.

“We’re all going to be working hands on with individuals and giving out exercise resistant bands,” Wilson said. “It’s just a great environment for people to come ask questions and learn. We’re going to be putting together a brochure so people have them easily accessible when they’re at their desk.”

Wilson said the students gave each of the exercises being demonstrated a fun and creative name.

“I Don’t Know” is one of the exercises, a movement similar to when young children raise their shoulders to their ears.

“We tried to come up with fun names so that people would remember them,” Wilson said.

The premise for the program sounds silly but the ill health resulting from a lifetime spent as a desk potato is no joke.

CBS News recently reported that the effects of spending too much time in a chair are manifold: electrical activity in leg muscles shuts down; the body effectively stops burning calories; enzymes that break down fat drop by 90 percent; HDL cholesterol production drops by 20 percent; and the risk of diabetes increases 24 percent.

Wilson believes the seminar is essential to anyone, whether students or faculty and staff members.

“I think it’s important for people to know these things,” he said. “Whether you are injury free at the moment or currently suffering from chronic posture-related issues, this seminar can really help you. You can use it as a ‘prehab’ to prevent injury or a rehab to heal previous injury. Whatever your current level is, there is something to offer for everyone.”