Office workers
Lets get moving for Get Britain Standing day on 24 April Reuters

A new campaign to get workers on their feet and moving around their offices will be launched next month.

Get Britain Standing has teamed up with the British Heart Foundation to encourage people to stand to their feet and leave their desks to carry out their daily tasks.

The organisers behind the On Your Feet Britain Challenge, which takes place on 24 April, says sitting all day at work has a serious negative impact on our health.

Sitting for more than four hours each day causes increased risks of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer.

It can also increase chances of getting backache, dementia, depression and muscle degeneration

According to their research, 45% of women and 37% of men spend less than 30 minutes a day up on their feet at work. More than half regularly eat their lunch at their desk and 78% office workers felt they spent too much time sitting down.

It is now offering some simple ways we can do activities instead of sitting on our backsides.

These include:

  • standing while making phone calls.
  • Stand and take a break from your computer every 30 minutes
  • Use the stairs
  • Have standing or walking meetings
  • Eat your lunch away from your desk
  • Walk to your colleague's desk instead of phoning or emailing them
  • Stand at the back of the room during presentations

"Inactivity and sedentary behaviour is one of the biggest challenges we have in public health today," Dr Mike Loosemore, head of exercise medicine at University College Hospital, told the BBC.

"Compared with 100 years ago, our levels of activity are tiny, the number of manual jobs are continually reducing, even if you dig a road up you sit in a little tractor.

"It's about changing attitudes to how people behave at work and changing the culture of the workplace that just means moving around at little bit more, even just standing up can make a big difference to calories burned and how alert, creative and productive you are."

We can burn an extra 50 calories per hour by standing rather than being seated - so let's get moving.