Thursday, July 22, 2010

Don't try this at home

You can sit yourself to an earlier death. Sitting, even after workout, can cut lifespan No danger of that happening here, but many people sit for a large proportion of each day and pay a severe price for it.
"Prolonged time sitting suppresses your immune system, which may increase the risk of cancer and other diseases. And your blood isn’t circulating as it should when you’re sedentary for long periods of time. When blood doesn’t flow through your veins up to your heart, it could lead to dangerous blood clots. It also has metabolic consequences – increasing your resting blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Researchers say the metabolic effect may explain why the association was strongest for cardiovascular disease mortality in the study."
"Essentially, those who sit less, live a longer life than those who don't." It seems that the dangers of dying from sitting add one more layer of argument against TV and one more reason to spend evenings in the wood shop. Women who spend up to six hours a day sitting are 40% more likely to die sooner than women who spend less than 3 hours a day sitting. So women too, can benefit from more time in the wood shop.

And if you are living longer, guess how much more work you can get done than by those who've sat themselves into early graves? Lots and lots.

Speaking of wood shop, I finally got around to applying the first coat of Danish oil finish to the boxes I made as demos at Marc Adams School of Woodworking. These as you can see in the photos above and below are made of walnut, cherry and maple, and the lid support straps are of my latest design. I hope all my students have also finished their boxes by now, and are as pleased. There is a tremendous satisfaction in making things, and seeing them come to exist on their own as finished forms. And it is better than sitting around doing nothing and dying from it.


  1. Anonymous5:01 AM

    So I've been doing something right all along! No danger of me sitting around for long. By the way, the box lid support looks like that bead chain stuff. What holds the ends in place?


  2. The support is made from black nylon string from the hardware store. It has a knot at each end, with the hole sized so the string, but not the knot will pass through.

  3. Anonymous12:26 PM

    Ah. Now it makes sense. In the picture it really looked like that bead chain stuff that's used on light pull-fixtures.