What’s it about?

The term “sedentary behaviour” refers to any behaviour during waking hours with a very low energy expenditure (1.5 metabolic equivalents (METs) or less). This includes sitting, reclining or lying down.

It is important to limit long periods of sedentary time at work (e.g., sitting at a desk or computer, during meetings and while driving) and to replace some sitting time with movement, such as light physical activity, like standing, stretching and walking. The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults 18-64 Years recommend:

  • Breaking up long periods of sitting as often as possible
  • Limiting total sedentary time to 8 hours or less per day, including no more than 3 hours of recreational screen time.

 

Why it matters

The risk of several types of cancer, including breast, colon and endometrial, and other serious health conditions like cardiovascular disease and diabetes increases as the amount of time spent being sedentary each day increases. People who spend more than 6 to 8 hours per day sitting have a higher risk of developing these conditions compared to those who sit for less than 3 hours per day.

The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults 18-64 Years highlight the importance of both daily physical activity and limited sedentary behaviour for health benefits. In addition to the sedentary behaviour guidelines outlined in the previous section, the Guidelines recommend accumulating at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activities, engaging in muscle strengthening activities at least twice a week, and including several hours of light physical activity, including standing, each day. Together, adequate physical activity and limited sedentary time can reduce cancer risk.

On average, Canadians who work in desk-based jobs spend 72% of their workday sitting. Workplace interventions that aim to break up and reduce sedentary behaviour are important to reduce the risk of negative health effects among employees. Interventions that include a combination of strategies targeting individual, organizational and physical/built environment factors have been shown to be most effective at reducing sedentary time at work. Workplace interventions have also been shown to improve other aspects of employees’ physical and mental health as well as productivity and performance.

For more information about the benefits of reducing sedentary time and the role workplaces can play in supporting their employees to sit less and move more at work, review the resources below.

Resources:

 

Ways to take Action

 

For Workplace Leaders and Health Champions

Learn about the risks of sedentary behaviour, the benefits of reducing sedentary time, and ways to do so at work.

  • Watch the Sedentary Behaviour video.
  • Read the Evidence Brief: Reducing Cancer Risk through Workplace Sedentary Behaviour Interventions.

Share information about sedentary behaviour with employees.

  • Watch and discuss the Sedentary Behaviour video at a staff meeting. Discuss ways your workplace can support employees to reduce their sedentary time during work hours.
  • Share information and resources for employees to reduce their sitting time, such as the “Reducing Sedentary Time at Work: Strategies for the Office and at Home” tip sheet.

Assess the current state of sedentary behaviour at your workplace.

  • Encourage employees to track their sedentary time for several days using the Sedentary Time Tracking Tool to understand their current behaviour.
  • Gather employee feedback through a survey, interviews or group discussions on ways the workplace does or does not support sitting less and moving more during the workday, and suggestions for improvement.

Resources:

  • Sedentary Behaviour video
  • Evidence Brief: Reducing Cancer Risk through Workplace Sedentary Behaviour Interventions
  • Sedentary Time Tracking Tool

Engage employees

  • Empower/encourage a workplace health or wellness team or champions to workplace initiatives for employees to sit less and move more at work, such as team challenges, movement breaks, weekly themes, and sending motivational messages and resources to staff.
  • Create easy ways for employees to provide input and feedback, and to get involved in workplace initiatives.

Create a workplace culture that supports less sitting and more movement during the workday.

  • Invite leaders to be role models and try out some strategies to reduce their own sedentary time at work.
  • Make sedentary behaviour a standing item at Workplace Health and Safety Committee meetings.
  • Encourage employees to stand during meetings and to have walking meetings when feasible.
  • Incorporate movement breaks during longer meetings, if possible, and use meeting facilitation techniques that provide opportunities for standing or other forms of movement.
  • Display posters, signage or artwork that encourages movement and activity.

Make sitting less and moving more at work the easy choice by design.

  • Support employees to modify their workstations by providing furniture or equipment, such as sit-to-stand desks, that allow employees to stand, swivel or change positions easily, or provide shared standing workstations for employees to use.
  • Create open spaces that enable movement in shared multi-purpose areas, like cafeterias and meeting rooms, and enable employees to converse while standing or moving around.
  • Relocate equipment, such as printers and water refill stations, further away from employees’ desks.
  • If possible, provide facilities that encourage active living and active transportation (e.g., showers, lockers, bike racks).

Resources:

Reflect on

Celebrate success

Resources:


 

For Employees

Step 1: Build Awareness

Learn about the risks of sedentary behaviour, the benefits of reducing sedentary time, and ways to do so at work.

  • Watch the Sedentary Behaviour video.
  • Read the Evidence Brief: Reducing Cancer Risk through Workplace Sedentary Behaviour Interventions.

Track your sedentary time.

  • Use the Sedentary Time Tracking Tool to track your sedentary time at work for a few days or a full work week to understand your current behaviour. Then, continue to track your sedentary time and movement breaks while you try out different strategies to reduce your sedentary time at work and reflect on your successes and challenges each week.

Resources:

  • Sedentary Behaviour video
  • Evidence Brief: Reducing Cancer Risk through Workplace Sedentary Behaviour Interventions
  • Sedentary Time Tracking Tool
  • Creating Awareness and Taking Action

Set goals to reduce your sedentary time during work hours.

  • Reflect regularly on your sedentary behaviour using the exercises in the Sedentary Time Tracking Tool. Consider factors that helped or prevented you from sitting less or moving more.
  • Use the Setting Goals to Sit Less and Move More tipsheet to help you set 1-2 goals for reducing your sedentary time at work.

Choose and try out different strategies to reduce your sedentary time.

  • Creating new habits can be difficult and often takes several weeks to stick. Increase your chances of success by trying out one or two strategies at a time for several days or a week before adding new strategies. Some recommended strategies for reducing sedentary time at work include:

Break up sitting time throughout the workday.

Find opportunities to break up sitting throughout the workday whenever you can. Movement breaks can be simple, quick, and doable in the space available, like beside a desk or table.
For example:

  • Stand when possible (e.g. during meetings or webinars, wear a headset and stand while talking on the phone, have standing or walking meetings), taking care to practice moderation.
  • Stand or go for a walk during work breaks or between meetings
  • Plan a “stretch break” in your day. Try the “Get Fit As You Sit” two-minute video, created by ParticipAction
  • Start meetings with a standing stretching activity (shoulder rolls, arm circles, trunk twists, hand or foot flex, leg lifts)
  • Include a standing or movement break as a meeting agenda item
  • Use the stairs instead of the elevator
  • Walk to a colleague’s desk rather than send an e-mail or online message
  • Use a centrally located garbage can, recycling bin, and/or printer
  • Walk to rehydrate; take a short break every hour to refill your water cup throughout the day

Set up reminders to sit less.

  • It may be helpful to have reminders to help you break up long periods of sitting as often as possible. By being intentional and blocking time in your calendar you will be more likely to do it!
  • Set timers or use health apps on your phone or computer to remind you to get up. Refer to the Sit Less Reminders tip sheet for ideas.
  • Turn a reoccurring meeting (a standing meeting) into a literal “standing meeting.”

Change the design of your workspace.

  • Simple tweaks to the design of your workspace may entice you to move or stand more—sometimes without even realizing it! Changing your physical space can prompt natural movement during work time.
  • Request or purchase a manual or electric height-adjustable desk, if feasible, or create your own using books or boxes to enable you to move quickly and easily between sitting and standing throughout the workday.
  • Move personal office equipment like a filing cabinet, shelf or printer away from your desk so you have to get up to use it.

Resources:

Reflect on progress

  • Changes in sedentary time and breaking up sedentary time
  • Meeting goals they set

Celebrate Success

Resources:

 

How it connects

Whether addressing a specific health issue like reducing sedentary time at work or considering several components of employee wellbeing, the most successful initiatives are those that use an integrated and comprehensive approach. This means they use several different strategies that address different areas of the workplace environment.

The Healthier Together Workplaces (HTW) Program provides a framework and resources for creating a healthy workplace and improving employee health and wellbeing in an integrated and comprehensive way. The framework highlights 4 key areas that shape a healthy workplace and suggests using varied strategies within each area to create change, including i) policy, ii) programs and resources, iii) education and training, and iv) communication and awareness.

Applying the HTW Framework to an initiative to reduce sedentary behaviour at work, a comprehensive approach might look like:

Four Areas of a Healthy Workplace
Examples of Strategies to Reduce Sedentary Behaviour at Work
Physical environment
Adapt the workplace’s layout and infrastructure to reduce sitting and promote movement, such as moving shared equipment like printers and water refill stations further away from desks.
Psychosocial environment
Encourage employees to stand during meetings or have walking meetings when possible.
Personal health resources
Distribute information and resources to employees about sedentary behaviour, the benefits of sitting less, and ways to do so while at work.
Community connections
Partner with a local business or not-for-profit organization to provide a lunch-and-learn session for employees about simple stretches and exercises they can do during the workday to break up sitting time.

In addition to acting across the four areas of a workplace and using a range of strategies, the HTW Program encourages workplaces to consider how they will address 5 enabling factors that are key to supporting effective action to create a healthy workplace. This might look like:

Five Factors that Enable Workplace Health Action
Examples of Strategies to Address the Enabling Factors
Strong leadership and workplace culture
Managers and other senior leaders “walk the talk” and demonstrate behaviours that reduce their sitting time and increase their standing and light movement at work.
Employee engagement and participation
A workplace wellness committee or team coordinates workplace initiatives to reduce sedentary behaviour.
Effective communication
Information and resources to support sitting less and moving more at work are shared with employees regularly via an e-newsletter.
Integrated and comprehensive approach
A focus on reducing sedentary behaviour at work is integrated with a broader “active workplace” initiative and uses multiple, diverse strategies across different areas of the workplace to support change.
Commitment to continuous improvement
There are processes in place to gather feedback, evaluate and/or The free HTW Program offers workplaces a flexible, 5-step planning process and resources to identify workplace health priorities and to select and implement evidence-informed strategies that address priority issues, which also include physical activity, healthy eating, mental health, UV protection, alcohol reduction, and reducing tobacco and vape use.

Resources:

 

More Resources

The following list of additional resources has been compiled by the Healthier Together Workplaces team to support workplaces and employees to sit less and move more at work.

 

Information and Guidelines
Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults 18-64 Years (Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP)): Offer clear direction on what a healthy 24 hours looks like, integrating physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep.

How sedentary behaviour increases your risk of cancer (Canadian Cancer Society)

 

Resources and Toolkits
"Active at Work Toolkit (Government of Newfoundland & Labrador & ParticipACTION): A set of resources, including handouts, posters, email templates, and more to encourage people to think about moving more while at work.

Active Workplace Audit Toolkit (Alberta Health Services and Centre for Active Living): Provides a self-assessment tool for workplaces to identify how to support office-based employees to move more and sit less.

BeUpstandingTM (The University of Queensland, Australia): A free, world-leading program that improves the health and wellbeing of desk-based workers through less sitting.

Make Your Move at Work (Healthy Tomorrow Foundation, Nove Scotia): A program that aims to inspire a culture shift for workplaces to play a leadership role in promoting increased movement throughout the day.

SMART Work and Life (Leicester Diabetes Centre): An evidence-based program that supports workplace champions, managers and staff members to encourage people to sit less and move more at work and during their leisure time.

Sneak It In (ParticipACTION): Provides tips for individuals and workplaces to sneak in more physical activity into the day.

Work Better in Active Spaces & Places Toolkit (Government of Newfoundland & Labrador & ParticipACTION): A toolkit to help employers and employees think about how they can incorporate a movement culture within their workplace and support physical activity.