Sitting Bull or Rat Race? What We Can Learn From Our Tiny & More Evolved Counterparts — Children
AKA-The Science Behind Treadmill Desks for Improved Health Outcomes Boasts, OOH La La… [1]
*Disclaimer- Names do not represent any particular students, but rather a composite of all of my students over the years. This article is written for educational purposes only. This is not legal, investment, financial or health advice in any realm. If you have questions or concerns, see a professional to relay and properly discuss.
Background & Context
Attribution: This Sports Illustrated OpEd article [2], inspired my own snark. I first read it with my very dear friend, Burky, whom I had taught with for years and has served as the closest thing to a godmother to my daughter. In true Burky fashion, one day when I needed a laugh, she brought me this ‘treat of literary perfection,’ as we sat in disbelief post-lunchduty and marveled at what our students were sent for their cold lunches. On that day, I had observed more business lines of Little Debbie and Hostess than a trade show expo. Who knew there were seperate overprocessed solutions for every course of lunch? I was shocked. Is there a way to weave in healthier choices without full combat on Little Debbie, Hostess, or similarly situated companies? My curiosity was highly piqued. Given Michelle Obama’s overhaul on school lunches, documentaries i.e. Supersize Me, and the like, what does this say of wellness & Education policy? [30][31] The article stuck with me for years. I proudly had it displayed on my bulletin board behind my teacher desk. Further, it inspired a subtle grassroots campaign with optimized, active-learning fueled by endorphins, which became synonymous with both my teaching ethos and myself.
Just Add Repetition, Engagement, & Endorphins
As a teacher, my Kindergarteners Jazzercized to Phonercize, which used the ‘Rocky’ melody in an intense ‘go you,’ ‘ you rock,’ ballad that reviews all letters sounds interspersed with kick boxing and other aerobic exercises, and chants that were intense as a squad of cheerleaders cheering V-I-C-T-O-R-Y to kick off our day. [20] Then, we took it down a notch to the verbs of Alphadry acting out each letter sound. [21] This was our morning routine, every morning, for 180 days.
The power of my method was in the repetition, engagement and endorphins. Each afternoon, post our lunch, recess, nap combo, we entered into part deux: our calendar math routine, which was equally as engaging. This was to counterbalance the neuroscience of the mid-afternoon energy drop. [32][33] To rev up our afternoon and coordinating cognitive processes, the entire dance of Macarena Math was done to skip-counting, drilling abstraction into rote processes and activating multiple neural circuits to reinforce these difficult concepts, important precursors to addition and multiplication. [22] We then, jumped out the days in school, like a drill sergeant, of course the snack person got to choose the Language, (Whale, robot, whiny baby, etc.) from 1 to 180 [23].
If you are not familiar with the issues in education, this may seem silly. Here is the gist, We ran, jumped and sang all high-frequency words multiple times throughout the day. My students taught me more about learning and cognition than I could ever learn in any class, even Neuroscience. In sum, it is akin to interactive, gamification, OG-K style. Given that I left the classroom in 2011, to stay home with my daughter, and eventually pursued another degree. There are likely far better resources/songs today, and these are not the exact videos, my playlists were lost years ago, but you get the drift.
— Thank you, Burky. It only took me fifteen years to re-discover this gem OpEd on the Interwebs- Love you always and forever, Jen.
Overview
The motivation for this article demonstrates the irony found within education. For years, early childhood educators have been told, ‘more rigor, less fluff,’ however, it seems that ‘as the Pendulum swings,’ circa the 90’s reading wars, there is concrete, scientific proof that fluff, engagement, and more specifically movement accelerates neuroprocessing and offers health benefits unknown prior i.e., in a true Kindergarten fashion, ‘told ya so.’ [24]
Overview: To begin with, this article is long, it is bifurcated into two sections. The first section is the foundation of education policy. Part II digs into the data and research by extending these concepts into adulthood and offering the theory that our policy is counter intuitive to the research.
Part I encompasses three main topics that set the stage. First, we challenge the, ‘Sit Still’ mantra; an education mainstay for classroom management. Next, we examine the role of movement, neoteny & the 4-letter word in Education Policy: PLAY, as it relates to Enhancing learning and Cognition; Finally with additional clarity we revisit policy and challenge the directives that had served as the mantra of a mature and well managed classroom via statistics with some snark to boot.
Part II extends these misunderstood pedagogical frameworks using the catch phrase, “sitting is the new smoking,” and examines the research, data, and closes with my own humorous experience on a treadmill desk. Ultimately, making the case that there is much to learn from our children, but, if we are willing to listen.
Of note, there are many references that teachers and parents will understand, but may not seem logical to the average reader. Given the thesis is that we can learn more from the 5–6 year old crowd to accelerate learning and cognition, where the recent interest in treadmill desks is but one example; I reference many storybook characters from children’s literature. All references are noted below should you not be familiar with this nuanced lexicon and want to relive yester-year, let YouTu.be be your guide. After publishing, I revised to aid clarity for those new to the interesection of education and health policy to optimize. A topic I love and call “Education Reform Simply Speaking.”
This article was written to offer discussion on education policy including learning and cognition across the lifespan, thereby, subtly insinuating that perhaps, a Return on Investment (ROI) previously unrealized could be leveraged by creating a better prepared and more well-adjusted society of healthy and active learners, both tangible and non. To fully understand, we examine the current state of education; then, dial into the research, and finally, I offer my perspective on ways to tie the two together.
Comments are welcome. My DMs are open and I am always happy to elaborate. With that, let’s Dive into the exciting world of Ed Policy, or as the Frizz would say, ‘Seatbelts Everyone!!’ [25]
How Bad can Sitting Really Be — We Just Followed the Directions, Right? [29]
The ‘Sit Still’ Mantra: An Acutely Logical Fallacy
How often do we hear physical activity is mere ‘fluff?’ A fact indoctrinated into our students through the phrase, ‘sit still and be quiet’. Yet new research has emerged to challenge this very notion, which calls into question the satirical state of physical education and recess. By tracing this fallacy from a profound misunderstanding of developmental appropriateness through adulthood, the consequences of poor policy as it relates to health, including excessive sitting, become evident. Ultimately, this erodes the longstanding case that physical education/wellness/play are simply ‘fluff,’ but rather lays the foundation that these concepts serve a crucial purpose: to facilitate metacognition and problem solving. Ironically, these are the exact skills, which are quoted to be missing in society today.
I pose the first question, by mis-categorizing the former, are we are dying a slow death while we sit indoctorinated and quietly waste away in our desks? If so, what can be done?
Fad or Profound Paradigm Shift?
Treadmill desks are all the rage. But why? In the last few years, Apple has integrated reminders to stand each hour, and the Neuroscience of exercise in relation to optimizing cognitive processes, presents a compelling case, but, alas, I was not convinced. [18] Likely because this mandated challenging everything I was ever taught about what being an adult requires.
A bit of context, I taught Kindergarten for 10 years, and have been in the field of Education in some capacity for greater than 25, both in and out of the classroom. Both of my undergraduate and graduate degrees were deeply rooted in understanding developmentally appropriate education, yet all this research could not counterbalance the drive towards the dark days of Education, or as I refer to it, ‘No child Left Untested’ AKA teaching to the test a race to the bottom. [34]
Repeatedly, I told my students, “stop moving, stop wiggling; sit criss-cross, applesauce, hands are in your lap, or my favorite…
Please keep all of your appendages to yourself, including but not limited to, hands, feet, tiny toes, fingers…Yep, even your pinky fingers, Al*
Thank you, Alex*, your tongues as well…
I taught Kindergarten, need I say more? Also, The 5–6 year old crowd is the perfect example of legal Language and paramount at finding exception as parents everywhere know.
Rigor or Reform?
For years I drank that Koolaid, ‘students today need more rigor and less freedom.’ [35] Eventually, I indulged, thank goodness I came to my senses though the study of education reform. The research now consistently emerges on the importance of play and the purposeful hard-wiring of the human brain for engagement via neoteny, retaining childlike qualities into adulthood. It is in this spirit that I pose the question, “Is this new found research on sitting just one more brick, chiseled from ‘the wall?’ circa Pink Floyd? [3] Where the statement rings true,
“Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone” [3]
Neoteny, Who Knew Evolution Meant Something?
Even more compelling, are our tiny counterparts more evolved than adults? See, What Ever Happened to Bulgaria? See also, Education Reform Simply Speaking, where I discuss the merits of play on educational outcomes and how we as a society have sunk the proverbial Battleship on play-based learning, which is beyond the scope here. [4][5]
Now to embrace my former Kindergarten ways, and quote the elegant Ogre, Shrek, ‘We must go on a ‘quest,’ not to ‘get our swamp back,’ but rather, to uncover all that we have written off as drivel for the last umpteen years, or in other words, eat some [Crow] with a hearty helping of Piggie Pie. [6][7]
As the potential solution emerges from our poor state of wellness, I draw parallels towards the classroom, and my bouncy little students, which then led me down the path, is it possible that Kindergarteners are more evolved than adults? [4]. Or more specifically, did we stunt our children’s growth through the traditional models of classroom management? Perhaps the five to six-year-old crowd symbolizes the wise sage and have OOH la la-ed us all. [1]
I wish, that, I knew what I [knew then] when I was [older] [1]
Further, could this misunderstanding go far deeper than childhood? What if the poisonous, inactivity seeds are sown in childhood as we frequently fail to transcend beyond the belief that children are to be seen [frozen] and not heard [laughing]. The former is discussed here, the latter in a subsequent article. I suspect that this reinforcement is then, naturally amplified throughout adulthood; could the answer to these poor health dynamics burgeoning on epidemic levels be rooted in school reform? YES!
Long [Sitting], Clear and Present Danger
The data to support the sad state of physical activity is not new and is perfectly articulated in a classic and scathing article from 2003, ironically, one of my first years out of the utopian bubble of theory, in the trenches of reality, the classroom, where I taught. This continually serves as an all-time favorite resource.
As quoted in Fat of the Land, an Op-Ed in Sports Illustrated, 2003, the trends of childhood obesity were evident long ago. Some of my favorite snark from this article are these classic lines, which issue a stark call to action from back in 2003. Yet, we failed to miss that megaphone message, on the merits of physical activity. These statements coupled with what we now know about sitting, offers another even more compelling case for education reform. [2]
The examples that Reilly humorously cites cannot be summarized, they are completely on point and present grave opposition to the politically correct speak that we have heard in Education Reform for decades calling for more ‘rigor’ and less ‘play,’ because we need to take learning more ‘seriously.’ Yet, had we followed our own advice and used our own research found within academia, it would have been clear long ago, versus in the mortality statistics in hindsight. Wellness and activity are necessary for learning at EVERY level as is rooted in evolution and biology. [4] [5]
“Is your Little Leaguer so fat his blood type is Chee-tos?..You’re not alone. Americans have the fattest kids on earth.” [2]
“Over the last 20 years the number of overweight children in this country has doubled. Soon, if that trend continues, one of every three kids will be obese…”as further quoted, ‘Generation Y,” says U.S. Surgeon general Richard H. Carmona, “is turning into Generation XL.’ “Id.
It’s you, Mr. Dad, pumping your bike madly while you let your triple-chinned five-year-old lie in the back of his little vinyl bike caboose. He’s back there on his cellphone, gorging on marshmallow bunnies. Let him pedal himself!” Id.
“It’s you, Mrs. Elementary School P.E. Instructor, letting policy wonks talk you into replacing sports that actually make a kid sweat — dodgeball, kickball, tag — with “activities” like competitive cup-stacking. Hey, nothing burns off fries like competitive cup-stacking. Can we let them do it in recliners?” Id.
But in all seriousness, it is not only parents and society that are at the root of this problematic rhetoric; it is also our law and policy makers armed with their, ‘tools,’ including the ever-present need to, ‘do more with less.’ Some of the statistics are murky, for example, the inverse trend between adequate recess and Physical Education, which is likely due to the tradeoff factor as evidenced below. Many policies lack teeth as they are forever pitted against budgetary shortfalls. What is first on the proverbial chopping block of many districts? Physical Education offerings and frequency, of course! This lack of funding was further pointed out by Dr. Madsen. [11]
“[She] notes that one of the barriers to the adoption of laws and policies to increase school-day physical activity is funding.” [11] When commenting on a 2006–2009 study:
“17.9 % offered 150 minutes/week of physical education” Id.
“The majority of states (83%) offered no daily recess law and less than half offered some kind of law addressing the recommended 150 minutes/week of physical education” Id.
“Our results show that mandating only increased physical education or recess time does not result in more overall physical activity as schools and/or districts appear to compensate for any increased physical activity in one area by decreasing other physical activity opportunities,” Id.
According to the results,
“17 states & 29% of school districts were considered weak.” [10]
“24 states and 67% of school districts had no P.E. Policies.” Id.
“When it comes to mandatory recess, five states were ranked weak, and 39 states had no recess law. Id.
At the school district level, the trend continues,
Just 19% of school districts required daily recess, 17% required some recess, but less than 20 minutes a day and a full 64% had no recess policy at all. “Id.
Again, Reilly eloquently continues,
“It’s you, Mr. School Board Member, cutting gym classes to supposedly focus on “literacy.” Or reducing gym to one or two times a week. [2]
Do you realize about half the states require only a year of high school P.E. or less? Wonderful. Now we’ve got kids who not only can spell myocardial infarction but also will have one by their 30th birthday.” Id.
As we will see below, these mere fluffy behaviors are actually quite life-sustaining, who knew?
Um, every elementary school teacher that I have taught with, for starters. So the adage is true, everything you ‘needed to know, you [really] did learn in Kindergarten.’ [13] How does that relate to the field of adulting?
Read on Grasshopper, but please, do stand between these sections. Your life may depend on it…
II. Sitting is the New Smoking, Diving into the Research: Real or Make Believe?
Now, to the matter at hand, when I began this article, I had no idea the deleterious effects on health that sitting had. I assumed my Apple watch was overindulgent in bossing me around. However, in recent years, the reality has become black and white. This is no longer a fluffy, Healthy Lifestyle/Wellbeing, initiative if it ever was, (sadly how we look at our health in the US.) But rather, it is near a health epidemic, corroborated with cold hard facts, as cold as a slab in the morgue. Certainly, while correlation does not equate to causation, it appears, sitting, could in fact be highly correlated and purported to be the new smoking. Inactivity is vastly misunderstood and the logic that is used as a counter argument is even more flawed than the recommendations to sit still. Prior to Apple’s ‘get up’ initiative [14]
I am an avid researcher, and full disclaimer, previous to this article, I assumed if you work out, lead an active lifestyle when not at work or are slightly more active overall than a couch potato, sitting cannot be all that bad. Sitting still is part of adulting, right? Or, more specifically it is what we have programmed into all of our youth. To this end, how bad can sitting really be? Well, let us just say I was shocked with the correlations found in the research. I was wrong, dead wrong.
“The conventional wisdom, though, is that if you watch your diet and get aerobic exercise at least a few times a week, you’ll effectively offset your sedentary time….
A growing body of inactivity research, however, suggests that this advice makes scarcely more sense than the notion that you could counter a pack-a-day smoking habit by jogging.” [13]
A compelling reason to read on, but maybe there are confounding variables? Perhaps this data is only relevant to middle-age folks such as those who already have health concerns and differs from others.
Or, maybe not….
“Hamilton’s most recent work has examined how rapidly inactivity can cause harm. In studies of rats who were forced to be inactive, for example, he discovered that the leg muscles responsible for standing almost immediately lost more than 75 % of their ability to remove harmful lipo-proteins from the blood. Id.
To show that the ill effects of sitting could have a rapid onset in humans too, Hamilton recruited 14 young, fit and thin volunteers and recorded a 40 percent reduction in insulin’s ability to uptake glucose in the subjects — after 24 hours of being sedentary. “ Id.
Okay, but how bad can this really be? Surely, this is not a cause for alarm you think…
… As you stand just in case this may be accurate. Or, wait…
Serious, as a Heart Attack
Hamilton continues quite cogently with his results, as serious as a heart attack both literally and figuratively, the topic can no longer be ignored. While data on the dangers of sitting is a recent emergence, the data on wellness has been widely available for years and echoes all that we have heard, and yet ignored, all the while obesity rates have skyrocketed.
When concerning students’ wellness, while the data was available on the implications of a healthy lifestyle, which had emerged from trends in understanding neurodiversity, the need for application thereof remained ignored in favor of high-stakes testing models of education. We all know how well that turned out circa the Atlanta Education Scandal and most recently the Varsity Blues College Admissions Scandal. [8] [9] [10]
To channel the famed and highly ineffective public health cmapign, “This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs, any questions?” [36]
“This is your body on chairs:
in the muscles drops — ‘the muscles go as silent as those of a dead horse,’ Hamilton says —
leading to a cascade of harmful metabolic effects. Your calorie-burning rate immediately plunges to about one per minute, a third of what it would be if you got up and walked…
Insulin effectiveness drops within a single day, and the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes rises. So does the risk of being obese. The enzymes responsible for breaking down lipids and triglycerides — for “vacuuming up fat out of the bloodstream,” as Hamilton puts it — plunge, which in turn causes the levels of good (HDL) cholesterol to fall.” [13]
Strong statements, however, just because one researcher found these results that does not give cause for concern, or, wait…
“Over a lifetime, the unhealthful effects of sitting add up. Alpa Patel, an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society, tracked the health of 123,000 Americans between 1992 and 2006…
The men in the study who spent six hours or more per day of their leisure time sitting had an overall death rate that was about 20 percent higher than the men who sat for three hours or less…
The death rate for women who sat for more than six hours a day was about 40 percent higher. Patel estimates that on average, people who sit too much shave a few years off of their lives.” Id.
Sitting, it would seem, is an independent pathology. Being sedentary for nine hours a day at the office is bad for your health, whether you go home and watch television afterward or hit the gym. Id.
Even Hamilton points out the beauty of children as they are in fact, ahead of their time, and also… he discusses, treadmill desks.
“… So instead he is exploring ways for people to redesign their environments so that they encourage more movement.
We visited a chairless first-grade classroom where the students spent part of each day crawling along mats labeled with vocabulary words and jumping between platforms while reciting math problems.” Id.
Sound familiar?
Even more statistics cement the cold case for inactivity,
“Every single hour of television watched after the age of 25 reduces the viewer’s life expectancy by 21.8 minutes.By comparison, smoking a single cigarette reduces life expectancy by about 11 minutes, the authors said…[16]
“Looking more broadly, they concluded that an adult who spends an average of six hours a day watching TV over the course of a lifetime can expect to live 4.8 years fewer than a person who does not watch TV. “Id.
Further, in a study examining, Leisure Time Spent Sitting in Relation to Total Mortality in a Prospective Cohort of US Adults, the following results were reported, by the American Journal for Epidemiology
“11,307 deaths in men and 7,923 deaths in women during the 14-year follow-up. After adjustment for smoking, body mass index, and other factors, time spent sitting (≥6 vs. ❤ hours/day) was associated with mortality in both women (relative risk = 1.34, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.25, 1.44) and men (relative risk = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.24)… [12]
Relative risks for sitting (≥6 hours/day) and physical activity (<24.5 metabolic equivalent (MET)-hours/week) combined were 1.94 (95% CI: 1.70, 2.20) for women and 1.48 (95% CI: 1.33, 1.65) for men, compared with those with the least time sitting and most activity… Id.
“Associations were strongest for cardiovascular disease mortality. The time spent sitting was independently associated with total mortality, regardless of physical activity level.”
Public health messages should include both being physically active and reducing time spent sitting. There is a growing body of evidence showing that reducing the amount of time spent sitting, regardless of the amount of physical activity, may improve the metabolic consequences of obesity.” [Id.]
With the data very clearly indicating a correlation, we turn to those that are highly active, runners, and review an article in Runner’s World. Does this argument hold muster?
Dazed & Confused by Data
An article on Runner’s World offers even more resources, and strips away the fallacies offering a new category between runners activity bearing the modernized title, “an active couch potato.” [15]
“We were very surprised that even the highest level of exercise did not matter squat for reducing the time spent sitting…” [Id.]
Here are some interesting studies and their coordinating findings:
(2012) International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity,
“… People spent an average of 64 hours a week sitting, 28 hours standing, and 11 hours milling about (nonexercise walking), whether or not they exercised the recommended 150 minutes a week.
That’s more than nine hours a day of sitting,” Id.
American College of Sports Medicine from Illinois State University,
“… People are about 30 percent less active overall on days when they exercise versus days they don’t hit the road or the gym.” Id.
American Journal of Epidemiology,
“… A man who sits more than six hours a day has an 18 % increased risk of dying from heart disease and a 7.8 % increased chance of dying from diabetes compared with someone who sits for three hours or less a day. “[12]
12 Year Canadian Study,
“[Out of] 17,000 Canadians, researchers found that the more time people spent sitting, the earlier they died — regardless of age, body weight, or how much they exercised.”
The American Institute for Cancer Research
“… Links prolonged sitting with increased risk of both breast and colon cancers.” [15]
“Sitting time is emerging as a strong candidate for being a cancer risk factor in its own right,” says Neville Owen, Ph.D., head of the Behavioral Epidemiology Laboratory at Australia’s Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.” Id.
Alberta Health Services-Cancer Care in Canada
“…Inactivity is linked to 49,000 cases of breast cancer, 43,000 cases of colon cancer, 37,200 cases of lung cancer, and 30,600 cases of prostate cancer a year.”
While one hypothesis is the lipid phosphate phosphatase-1 or the LPP1, aiding in inflammation, where [shockingly] LPP1 was not impacted by exercise if the muscles were inactive most of the day,’ Hamilton says.
‘Pretty scary to say that LPP1 is sensitive to sitting, but resistant to exercise.”’ The cure could be as simple as short activity breaks.
Circling back to Hamilton’s view he highlighted the contrast between primary school classrooms and adulting trends, which may OOH LA LA us all, prompting both his invention of a treadmill desk, and simultaneously karate kicking through Another Brick in the Wall [1][3] Hamilton’s observations in the ‘chair-less first grade,’ come of age in adulting.
“We stopped by a human-resources staffing agency where many of the employees worked on the move at treadmill desks — a creation of Dr. Levine’s, later sold by a company called Steelcase.” [12]
The New Rat Race- Treadmill Desk
The research presented offers a stark call to action. Given that I frequently seek to optimize all processes through co.aching for many clients, and am always on the lookout for personal optimization, I gave the treadmill desk a try. Below is a brief summary of my reservations and overall experience. It is not an endorsement or advice, see disclaimer above.
Reservations and RSVP
My reservations did not particularly center on the normal ‘it may be too loud,’ or ‘it may annoy others,’ but rather, I am not the most coordinated person, and therefore, my main concern was falling off while attempting to réspondez s’il vous plaît to emails while not tripping. Quite ridiculous, I know. But, I also have been known to fall off traditional treadmills when deep in complicated problem solving mode. Given that the cerebellum is not my brain’s strongest feature, the concerns I had stemmed from same, think Phoebe from friends running or thereabouts.
Epiphany-but no Paper
I forget how many times my best ideas come when there is no paper nearby, sometimes not even a phone to type paralleling the experience of the writer below. Why does this happen? Do our brains need a break from sitting as well? Perhaps another article topic?
This question ultimately tipped the scales in favor of my reservations. The issue he describes happens to both myself and my coaching clients all the time. Periodically, I will even stop running for fear of losing the idea, and quickly type it out on my phone, if it has adaquate battery. This rings especially true if it relates to something that I have perseverated on, yet could not solve, despite concerted effort.
“But as I started to write this — sitting down — I wondered whether I had missed out on something almost as important that it [a treadmill desk] might offer.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, I learned, had found that children and young adults improved cognitive performance when walking at their preferred speed…
Could walking while writing actually improve my stories, as well as my health? And could I retrain my brain to do it?” Id.
Could those punchy but profound endings that I invariably conceive when I’m out exercising, but can’t remember when I’m in front of the screen be channeled by the tread desk? “ [17.]
Marathon Experience More or Less
As a writer, and coach among other things, I had to try it out. I did not purchase the model mentioned here, mainly because I did not believe the top speed of 2 mph was near fast enough. I had enjoyed a treadmill desk when I briefly officed at 1871. [19]
After a 13-hour stint, yes, I was in hyperfocus one afternoon/evening, I came to the conclusion, this trend was lit. While I was scarcely able to walk for the next few days as if I had walked a marathon, well, that is because, I sort of just had. Yet, I had also never been so productive. I researched and read more quickly and comprehended this dense material in a more efficient manner and at a deeper level with less rereading. I also purged a good 1000 emails. My one annoyance, in the process was that I felt I needed it to go faster. As the cadence of my project that day was higher.
Cadence to Learning: Sound On Sound Off
Until I studied learning and cognition in depth, or near ad nauseam, in grad school and beyond, I did not understand some of the idiosyncrasies of my work habits. However, I now understand the neuroscience and coordinating, underlying processes, which work. The way in which my brain is wired, like many with ADD, is rhythmic. I work best to music, but there is a caveat. It must be the same song on repeat. This sets the pace or tone, and generally also serves as an umbrella theme or analogy for the paper or article I am researching or writing. While writing this, can you guess what song was on repeat? This style of learning is not uncommon. While listening, the first one or two times, I hear the lyrics, the rest it is white rhythmic noise. This allows me to achieve the state of Flow [28]
I began this habit in grad school, as a branding of sorts, and since that point near every article has a YouTube video found within Resources Consulted to the inspirational song. After years of writing, I have now made this into a playlist: Articles of Incorporation. I suspect that the rhythm or cadence of the treadmill desk provides same. I have noticed that I cannot do the above and use my treadmill desk simultaneously, an interesting correlation [19]
The Need for Speed v. The Task at Hand
On conference calls and webinars, I tend to jog it out; that helps me to attend better. When answering emails that require a bit of finesse, I walk as if I was a snail.
One final thought, I did notice I had to drink additional bottles of water and eat many more times in a day. This makes sense when I consider the enormous amount of energy I had been expending. While I work out of Athena.Trade, the premier coworking hub for fintech, crypto, and Blockchain, as the Director of Presentations/marketing and public relations consultant, I like to interact too much with my colleagues. Shocker, my report cards frequently cited this in Catholic elementary school. Therefore, I generally only am in the office 1–2 times a week, where we have medicine balls to sit on and adjustable-height tables and desks. [27]
Some days, I need too many monitors for research and social media simultaneously to work in the office. This holds especially true if crypto has market drama, circa Tether of which I have nicknamed the #MagicTether8Ball of disastrous proportions, or if the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) more or less announced ‘Let’s Jam’ after a lack of cooperation v. KIK. [24] [25] [26] When the day is full of calls, webinars, or social streams, you will generally find me on my tread desk.
My brain may simply be wired for this, I am not sure if everyone’s is, and I would not recommend any fitness or wellness regime change without first discussing this thoroughly with your primary care provider. Further, if you office, you would need to disclose and ensure proper policy, but I do recommend giving it a whirl after all legal and health liabilities are properly followed.
Disclaimer: This article is written for educational purposes only. This is not legal, investment, financial or health advice in any realm. If you have questions or concerns, see a professional to relay and properly discuss these concerns.
Resources Consulted
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_xwnb3cymc
[2] https://www.si.com/vault/issue/704428/85
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5ApYxkU-U
[4]https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_keil_a_manifesto_for_play_for_bulgaria_and_beyond?language=en
[5] shttps://link.medium.com/7qvKieI6uX
[6] https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/b466fd56-5bfc-4396-857e-89dd11a7eb41
[7] http://www.margiepalatini.com/wp-content/uploads/readers_theater/PIGGIE_PIE_READERS_THEATER.pdf
[8] http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/charges-expected-in-aps-test-cheating-scandal/nW35q/
[9] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/us/sat-act-cheating-college-admissions.html
[11]https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111205165851.htm
[12]https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/172/4/419/85345; see also, https://www.highly.co/hl/MMgJQuNSKUiVUL
[13] https://cpco.on.ca/files/9214/0182/6527/NeedToKnow.pdf
[14]https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17sitting-t.html
[15] https://www.runnersworld.com/health-injuries/a20796415/sitting-is-the-new-smoking-even-for-runners/; see also https://www.highly.co/hl/LxO3X6NUEpzfhW
[16]https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/get-up-get-out-dont-sit/
[17]https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/finding-the-right-pace-on-a-treadmill-desk/
[18] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3951958/
[19] https://1871.com/
[20] Phonercize https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-XrKajQhoM
[21] Alphadry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTeUONxZYAs
[22] Macarena Math https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5cqjX60LbU
[23] Jumping out the Days in school https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TgLtF3PMOc; Days of the Week,
[24] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-26/things-got-weird-for-stablecoin-tether
[25] https://twitter.com/guillermojimnz/status/1135972713305116672?s=21
[27] https://www.Athena.trade; see also www.AthenaBit.co.in/coworking
[28]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_u-Eh3h7Mo
[29] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z60vA7vVYUY&feature=share
[30]https://www.fns.usda.gov/pressrelease/002312
[31] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQGAv8gtBA
[33] https://www.fastcompany.com/90231844/you-cant-avoid-your-afternoon-slump-heres-how-to-get-through-it
[34]https://medium.com/lula-co/no-child-left-untested-the-case-of-unfunded-mandates-9796cdc5d39d
