By Brian White | Fitness

Numerous studies prove that regardless of whether you jump up at the end of your workday from your desk and go for a run or hit the gym, you cannot negate the health problems arising from sitting for 10 – 12 hours every day in front of the computer.

What health effects you ask?

Prolonged sitting can increase fat in your blood, blood sugar levels and insulin production, also decreasing your body’s ability to use it. It is also associated with metabolic syndrome — which is defined as a group of risk factors the leads to coronary artery disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even cancer. And of course, don’t forget the obvious damaging effects sitting for long periods of time has on our posture and the aches and pains associated with it.

But the takeaway here is not the damage that can be caused by prolonged sitting, it is that too much sitting is not the same as too little exercise. We need to change the way we work — our computers are trying to kill us and jumping up at the end of the day and exercising is unlikely to undo the damage.

So what can you do?

If you are sitting at a desk all day, you have no doubt put some thought into buying a stability ball or a new chair or you have experienced aches or pains associated with it. So what should you do? Buy a new chair, a ball or just stand to relieve you of the negative health effects of prolonged sitting?

The real answer is none of them will really relieve you of much pain by themselves. Yet, they all can be a part of a strategic plan to get through your workday energized and pain-free.

You can still slouch on a stability ball, probably even more so than in a chair. It also takes practice to be able to hold a good posture on it, and don’t discount the fact that there is no lumbar support. However, there are good things about a stability ball, you can lightly bounce on it for a little activity and it may help serve as a reminder to keep a good posture.

An ergonomic office chair can be a very valuable tool to help support the body in a sitting position, but you are still sitting. A couple of downfalls though are price ($600+) and some can be confusing to get set up exactly right for your body. Many of them come with eight or nine features that all require adjustment. While these chairs are designed to support your body correctly, you still need to practice proper posture to reap the benefits of these tools.

A relative newcomer to the party gaining steam is the standing desk. While this option certainly alleviates some of the issues associated with sitting all day, it raises a few new ones when done for long periods. Standing all day long can be problematic, leading to varicose veins and potentially increasing the chance of carpal tunnel syndrome by compromising wrist position. If you are a business owner, beware before you purchase these for your company. Research has shown stand-up desk usage rapidly declines after 30 days, because people just don’t like to stand.

If you are looking for ways to alleviate the “trauma” of prolonged sitting at work the answer for you is to combine as many of these tools as possible with getting up and moving. Think of your work area as a circuit work station. Sometimes sit in your desk chair, sometimes sit and bounce on your stability ball, sometimes pace around in front of your desk. Step away from your desk and do 10 – 15 squats or push ups against your desk. The human body will function better and hurt less if you are constantly changing your body position throughout the day.

If you are not going to purchase any of these tools and you are chained to your desk for most of the day, you need to get up and move around every 45 minutes. This doesn’t mean you have to do t’ai chi in the middle of your office or rip off 20 lunges, all you need to do is get up and walk to the printer. This is more about not staying in one position for too long than trying to break a sweat. Walk to the bathroom, hand deliver a message or walk one lap around the office after each phone call. It’s not hard stuff but it will take discipline, set a timer or leave a sticky note on your computer to remind yourself that you are going to live a long time, and it will be way more fun if your computer doesn’t slowly kill you.