{"id":9130,"date":"2025-01-08T13:28:53","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T18:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/?p=9130"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:24:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T15:24:35","slug":"mechanized-logging-and-challenges-of-a-sedentary-worksite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/2025\/01\/08\/mechanized-logging-and-challenges-of-a-sedentary-worksite\/","title":{"rendered":"Mechanized Logging and challenges of a Sedentary Worksite"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brie Weisman, OTR\/L, Maine AgrAbility<\/em>, Fall 2024. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reprinted with permission from Logger’s Voice. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is sitting for hours on end the \u201cnew smoking?\u201d Some people may laugh off the
question, but the health profession is taking this notion very seriously.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic analyzed 13 studies of sitting time and activity
levels, and found that those who sat for more than eight hours a day without
participating in an exercise routine to counter it had a risk of dying similar to that
posed by obesity and smoking. That should not be particularly shocking as a
sedentary lifestyle is, after all, quite literally unnatural. Our bodies are made for
regular, vigorous motion: for gathering and chasing down food; for fleeing in
order to become someone else\u2019s food; for exploring and learning about our
environment whenever our more immediate needs are met. Sitting, historically
and evolutionarily, is what we are supposed to do in the few moments when all
our work is done at last\u2013the exception, not the rule. A sedentary lifestyle is a very
new phenomenon. Retirement, the combustion engine, and the first screens all
arrived in the last, razor-thin sliver of humanity\u2019s existence. Chairs have been
around slightly longer\u2013about the last 1.5% of our time on the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they\u2019ve caught on in a big way. According to the CDC, for adults ages 19-64,
sitting four to eight hours is considered a moderately sedentary lifestyle. Eight or
more hours is a high risk lifestyle. Loggers and fleet truck drivers should take
note. It\u2019s hard to find a logger today who does not sit in their equipment for less
than eight hours. Most don\u2019t take hourly breaks, and many remain in their cab for
more than two hours between breaks. This falls within the high risk lifestyle
already\u2013without accounting for the hours spent on the road driving to and from
the work site, or time at home at the kitchen table or in front of some sort of
screen at the end of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, loggers now engage in less physical activity than most office
workers. The office affords the opportunity for increasingly popular sit-to-stand
desks, and employees are encouraged to take regular, scheduled breaks. In
addition to that, they take additional walks to the water cooler or coffee machine
or copier, to associates\u2019 desks and offices, to meetings, and perhaps to lunch
down the street. The daily lunchtime exercise walk is steadily growing in
popularity. At a bare minimum, loggers should adopt a similar workday habit, with
regular time outside of equipment, standing up, stretching out, and walking about
for a minute or two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the specific dangers of a sedentary lifestyle?
Perhaps counterintuitively, sitting increases rather than decreases the
compressive forces on the spine\u2013by as much as 40%. The natural curve of the
spine supports the body evenly while standing, and motion creates a constant
redistribution and sharing of the body\u2019s weight across muscle groups. Sitting in
more or less the same position all the work day increases the risk of
musculoskeletal injuries: lower back trouble, tight shoulders, sore neck, even
aching hands and circulatory problems can be a consequence of sitting too
much. Have you ever felt that your shoes are tight at the end of the day, or
noticed swelling in your legs? That\u2019s a symptom of too much sitting. Other
chronic diseases highly correlated with long term sedentary lifestyles include
obesity, diabetes, depression, dementia, muscle loss, osteoporosis, multiple
types of cancers, stroke and heart disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s a logger to do? In general, a regular exercise program is important for
everyone. While on the job, short microbreaks should be considered an essential
part of every logger\u2019s day. Getting out of the cab and walking around your
machine for just one minute every half hour will go a long way to countering the
problems of a sedentary job. A single minute! That adds up to a mere 3% of your<\/p>\n\n\n\n

day. Not only does science say it\u2019s good for the body\u2013a wealth of research says
it\u2019s also good for the bottom line. Short mental breaks from a task undertaken for
long periods of time makes any worker more efficient and less prone to costly
errors in the long run. A walk around inspection of your machine in that single
minute may also identify an issue to address that will prevent the need for a
costly larger repair and time down. Micro breaks that increased worker health
and productivity, combined with quick, regular preventative inspections of
expensive equipment should be a no-brainer not only allowed, but insisted upon
by every logging company.
Now, this article is of course for loggers, but we\u2019re also parents, role models,
citizens. And the issue of sedentary lifestyles reaches well beyond logging. It has
grown to become a national concern. A January 2024 CDC article noted that
110,000 deaths could be prevented annually if US adults would increase their
moderate-to-vigorous physical activity level by just 10 minutes a day. Ten
minutes! Sadly, a mere one in four adults currently meet even this minimal effort.
Sedentary-related issues also cost us $117 billion a year. That\u2019s a lot of money.
So much that it could pay for every student leaving high school in America this
year to attend a state university or trade school. Twice over. With more than a
few billion to spare. What about joining the military as another option?
Unfortunately, an astonishing 77% of today\u2019s young adults are physically unfit for
US military service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to do better. Fitness affects happiness, longevity, productivity, and as a
society we have neglected it for so long that it\u2019s become a national security
concern. Be good to yourself, and be an example to your family, friends, and coworkers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brie Weisman, OTR\/L, Maine AgrAbility, Fall 2024. Reprinted with permission from Logger’s Voice. Is sitting for hours on end the \u201cnew smoking?\u201d Some people may laugh off thequestion, but the health profession is taking this notion very seriously.Researchers at the Mayo Clinic analyzed 13 studies of sitting time and activitylevels, and found that those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-logability"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":75,"label":"LogAbility"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"irusso","author_link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/author\/irusso\/"},"comment_info":"","category_info":[{"term_id":75,"name":"LogAbility","slug":"logability","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":75,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":15,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":75,"category_count":15,"category_description":"","cat_name":"LogAbility","category_nicename":"logability","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9130"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9405,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130\/revisions\/9405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}