Sitting
Sedentary load, break intervals, desks, and the hour-long drift.
9 guides · updated 4 Oct 2026 · every claim sourced
Sedentary behaviour
Does exercise cancel out a day of sitting? What a meta-analysis of over a million people found, what sitting does to your back, and why breaks still matter.
4 min read · Moderate evidenceOverviewSitting and back pain
Cross-sectional studies link sitting to back pain; longitudinal ones do not. What survives both is bout length, not daily total.
3 min read · Moderate evidenceMore in Sitting
Standing desks
Do standing desks help? They cut sitting by over an hour a day and reduce discomfort, but standing all day hurts too. How long to stand and how to set one up.
3 min readMeasurePosture drift over a sitting bout
Sitting posture drifts as a session goes on: the lower back flattens, discomfort rises and movement changes. What the studies measured and how breaks reset it.
3 min readHow-toBreaking up sitting
How often to break up sitting: alternating posture every 30 minutes cut lower-back discomfort by about a third in a randomised crossover trial.
3 min readHow-toErgonomic chairs
An ergonomic chair should fit you, not impress you. The adjustments that matter, what the evidence says about chairs and back pain, and when not to spend more.
3 min readHow-toHow to sit at a desk: a 10-minute setup
Proper sitting posture at a desk starts with the setup. A 10-minute checklist for chair, screen, keyboard and breaks, based on OSHA guidance and trials.
4 min readHow-toMonitor height and gaze angle
How high should a monitor be? Top of the screen at or just below eye level, an arm's length away. How to set one or two screens, and what changes with glasses.
3 min readHow-toLaptop posture
On a laptop the screen is too low or the keyboard too high. How to set up a laptop at a desk, on the sofa and on the move, with a stand and a separate keyboard.
3 min readAbout this topic
Most adults now sit for eight or more hours a day, at desks, on sofas and in cars. This section looks at what that does to the back and neck, and what you can change. It covers how sitting posture drifts over a long session, how often to take breaks, how to set up a desk, a monitor and a laptop, whether ergonomic chairs and standing desks help, and what prolonged standing costs in turn. The research is more nuanced than most advice: total sitting time is only loosely tied to back pain, while long uninterrupted bouts make existing pain worse. That makes the length of each bout, and how often you break it, the most useful thing to manage. Every article separates findings from trials from common advice that has never been tested.
- Strong consistent results from trials and reviews
- Moderate good studies, some gaps
- Limited few or small studies
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