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   Stand Up! The Work Break Timer that Wants to Save Your Life

   Josh Centers

   Sitting is killing us. Study after study has [1]linked extended periods
   of sitting to cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Unfortunately, even
   exercise doesn't offset the harm done by sitting. 'Now a consistent
   body of emerging research suggests it is entirely possible to meet
   current physical activity guidelines while still being incredibly
   sedentary, and that sitting increases your risk of death and disease,
   even if you are getting plenty of physical activity,' Travis Saunders,
   a Ph.D. student and certified exercise physiologist at the Healthy
   Active Living and Obesity Research Group at Children's Hospital of
   Eastern Ontario [2]told Runner's World.

   The common answer to the hazards of sitting is a standing desk, or even
   a treadmill desk, but not everyone can take advantage of those. Most
   people work in offices where they have little say over what kind of
   equipment they can use. Some people have health issues that prevent
   them from standing all day. Others, like yours truly, can't concentrate
   well while standing.

   Fortunately, research shows that frequent breaks every 20-30 minutes
   offsets the damage done by sitting. You could manually set a timer to
   remind you to stand up, but I've found a free solution to make it even
   easier: [3]Stand Up! by [4]Raised Square LLC. It runs on your iPhone,
   so you can use it at your home or office.

   Stand Up! does one thing and does it well. Open the app, select which
   days you would like alerts on, set a time range for those days, set an
   alert interval, and if you choose, even set alerts to work only at your
   current location. For a 99-cent in-app purchase, you can choose from a
   selection of alert sounds, though the free default is perfectly audible
   and pleasant.

   [5][tn_Stand-Up.jpg]

   By default, the app features a yellow theme, but if you wish, you can
   change it to a number of other colors. But not that it matters much;
   after setting your preferences in Stand Up!, you're done. Now, every
   few minutes (45 by default), you'll receive a notification on your
   iPhone telling you to stand up.

   [6][tn_Stand-Up-colors-notification.jpg]

   I've been using Stand Up! for a couple of weeks now, and I've noticed
   less pain in my back and posterior. There are a lot of apps out there
   that remind you to stand up, but Stand Up! is free, well-designed, and
   can be taken anywhere. In addition to that, it might extend your life.
   What else could you want?

References

   1. http://qz.com/223160/why-not-even-exercise-will-undo-the-harm-of-sitting-all-day-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/#/
   2. http://www.runnersworld.com/health/sitting-is-the-new-smoking-even-for-runners?_ga=1.69807125.420561079.1382148100
   3. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stand-up!-the-work-break-timer/id828244687?ls=1&mt=8&at=10l5PW
   4. http://www.raisedsquare.com/standup/
   5. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-07/Stand-Up.png
   6. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-07/Stand-Up-colors-notification.png

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