FrançaisHello and Welcome 🙂
It’s time to tell you more about our project.
A while ago, I quit my job as an Electronics and Firmware Engineer to go travelling. As you can imagine, this was an incredible experience, meeting new people, experiencing new cultures, trying new food, seeing beautiful landscapes, snakes etc … but this wasn’t the most unexpected thing.
Ever since I was a child I’ve been wearing Arch-support orthotic insoles and as childhood went, I have taken for granted wearing them forever. After 8 months travelling my pain was greater than ever, or just like when I once tried not to wear them: feet, knees, back, neck, it was all hurting. Back to my podiatrist, the answer was clear; << Jérôme ! Your body is now back to the perfect balance, wearing these Arch-support orthotic insoles is now harming you, you don’t need them anymore! >>
WOW that’s incredible, but what’s the miracle about travelling?
It isn’t exactly about travelling, it has to do with “sedentary time”. Sedentary time is the time we spend sitting, or sometimes almost lying in a chair, at work or watching TV. Have you ever heard the expression “sitting is killing you”? Or “Sitting is the new smoking”? If not I suggest googling it or you can read one of the following studies which always reach the same conclusion:
Conclusions: Prolonged sitting is a risk factor for all-cause mortality, independent of physical activity. Public health programs should focus on reducing sitting time in addition to increasing physical activity levels.[…]
(Ref 1)
Conclusion/interpretation: Sedentary time is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality; the strength of the association is most consistent for diabetes.
(Ref 2)
Indeed, before travelling I was doing some intense and regular Krav-Maga (self defence activity, very physical), rock-climbing and snowboarding as part of my weekly fitness regime. But studies have shown that sitting time is increasing mortality, as well as related obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, Type 2 Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease (Ref 2 & Ref 6), muscle strength-loss (Ref 4) etc. regardless of physical activity. In fact when travelling I am generally not doing so much physical exercise, mainly only walking. As aforementioned studies show, regular non-exercise* ambulatory movements are as important as Exercising! One cannot substitute one for the other.
* NEAT: Non-exercise activity thermogenesis.
So, what should we do?
For most of us, today’s life implies working on a computer for over 8 hours per day. Unfortunately, as shown in studies (Ref 1), physical activity after work doesn’t counter the effects of sitting.
Clearly, we need to stand up regularly throughout the day, every day, this will bring back the very important regular nonexercise ambulatory movements. The good news is you only need to stand up for a few minutes but it is important that this is done regularly throughout the day.
BONUS: Benefit to the eyes (Ref 5)
Discomfort and eyestrain were significantly lower with supplementary breaks (four 5 min complementary breaks per day on top of the two 15 min breaks), and supplementary breaks reduced discomfort and eyestrain during work sessions. Data-entry speed was significantly faster with supplementary breaks so that work output was maintained, despite replacing 20 min of work time with break time. Supplementary breaks reliably minimize discomfort and eyestrain without impairing productivity.
What are the solutions?
Quite a few people are already aware of such an issue and here is a summary of the current solutions :
Stand-Up meetings, walking meetings, standing up when answering the phone, walking instead of rolling your chair, using TV ad breaks as a stand-up alert…
And the techy solutions
– Using a Smartphone app to count your sitting time, just press start and stop and an alert will tell you to stand up after a timeout.
– Using a Stand up desk, with height adjustment for sitting / standing.
– Bracelet, Tracker, Jawbone, FitBit, Misfit, Apple Watch, Apple HealthKit, Google Fit, Samsung S Health.
With the following impact, respectively :
– Not automatic, easy to forget to start and stop.
– This is nice but it doesn’t remind you when you are sitting for too long.
– While some apps might claim to count your sitting time, this is not exactly true!
They all only detect movement or lack of exercising, but what is in interest to us here is an excessive sitting time.
The solution we have discovered is a complement to the ones mentioned, it is designed to connect and interact with them via Bluetooth Low Energy. But you can also simply start using it as a stand alone solution and a cheap trade off!
Bluetooth Low Energy Connected
What is it?
The small device is fixed to a chair with a strap, then you can forget it while it starts and stops the counter when you sit down or get up 🙂
The main aim is to have a smart timer to optimise your working time. If you just stood up for a phone call at 9:55 it won’t disturb you at 10:00 like a fixed clock. Also if you stood up but for only 10 seconds to reach the printer it will count them but won’t totally reset the timer.
It can be attached to any chair.
Current status:
Jan 2017: Marketing took over the development time, yet there is very little results. I’ll try to go back to more development to reach a nice and stable manufacturable product, before launching a Crowdfunding campaign.
Dec 2016: Searching and speaking with various manufacturers.
Nov 2016: We have a working prototype!!! It is autonomous only (no Bluetooth yet) but it works! Brilliant 🙂
Oct 2016: I am now as far as building production-size prototypes in the coming weeks! The first will be for me, the second will be given to … maybe you !
Subscribe to enter the draw 🙂
A draft preview.
Why I believe in Standing Sitting Moving
This 3 words are the key, really: Standing Sitting Moving. I have been experimenting with standing for working on this project since August 2016, and I quickly realized something interesting; a standing at the desk will automatically generate small movements, this is the N.E.A.T. (non-exercising-activity-thermogenesis) all the studies are talking about . Small natural movements. Again, this cannot substitute for physical exercise. It goes even further, now anytime I am thinking, I automatically start moving or walking around, blood pressure and blood flow increase everywhere in the body, including to the brain. More blood means more energy and oxygen, which makes our brain perform better. But there is a downside too: Standing still too long brings in a bunch of other problems. And obviously, as the hours pass by, I feel like sitting a little, and that’s where this Sit Stand Timer comes in handy, reminding us to stand up and move regularly.
- Standing – for working
- Sitting – for resting
- Moving – for thinking
Summary
– Sit Stand Timer is a Sit Stand Timer.
– Sit Stand Timer is fixed to the chair.
– Sit Stand Timer is autonomous, a smartphone is not required.
– Sit Stand Timer has a Bluetooth connection for : settings, firmware upgrade, alert on the phone or alert on the smartwatch, statistics and sharing the data to any other App to enable unlimited possibilities (Open API)! It can also be linked to Apple HealthKit, Google Android FitBit, Samsung S Health etc.
– If you already have an exercising tracker device, Sit Stand Timer is different in that sense that it is counting the sitting time to reduce it without the need of exercising at work, both are important but independent!
Subscribe to stay tuned and feel free to share with your friends or contact-me.
Merci 🙂
Jérôme
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References
1:
http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1108810
Sitting Time and All-Cause Mortality Risk in 222 497 Australian Adults.
2:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00125-012-2677-z
Sedentary time in adults and the association with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and death: systematic review and meta-analysis. 2012, DOI: 10.1007/s00125-012-2677-z.
3:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22890825
Sedentary time in adults and the association with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and death: systematic review and meta-analysis.
4:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12815182
Suppression of skeletal muscle lipoprotein lipase activity during physical inactivity: a molecular reason to maintain daily low-intensity activity.
5:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajim.20472/abstract
Supplementary breaks and stretching exercises for data entry operators: A follow-up field study.
6:
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/56/11/2655.full#sec-23
Role of Low Energy Expenditure and Sitting in Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, Type 2 Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease. 2007, DOI: 10.2337/db07-0882.