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Comment by whiddershins | Hacker News Reader

I've been downvoted for writing this before, but here goes: exercise for exercise's sake may not be all it is cracked up to be. For example, standing for long periods is associated with an increased risk of varicose veins.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1740939/

I know many people believe all their physical ailments are traced to a sedentary lifestyle, but i don't think prolonged periods of abusing your body is the answer.

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I don't think you can cite one study concerning an increased risk of varicose veins and conclude that exercise is not all it's cracked up to be.

That study seems pretty legit, but it only concerns one health problem, and a relatively minor one at that. Fewer than 2% of the people in the study even required hospitalization for their problem. Comparing that to the numerous benefits of exercise for things like diabetes and heart disease, I think exercise is still a worthwhile use of time.

Obviously "abusing" your body will result in bad things happening. But I don't think it's reasonable to suggest that standing too much is abuse. Sure you're trading one set of effects for another, but I would argue that the negatives of standing are far fewer than the negatives of sitting.

By your implication, walking would be abuse because it raises your heart rate - and we only have so many beats before it stops working!

Good workouts at the gym intentionally stress your body, and your body responds by repairing itself stronger.

Back to the sitting/standing discussion... it seems the downsides of sitting far outweigh the downsides of standing.

Standing is hardly exercise.

It's not as easy as sitting down though. Being on your feet for hours on end is definitely a skill that needs to be learned (in the military, for example).

OK, on that I agree. I bet this is not a skill the OP acquired.

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