I’ve just realised that there is something wrong with my new office chair. It’s a swanky piece of furniture called “Freedom by Humanscale” and comes with “advanced armrests” and an ingenious way of matching its “recline tension” to my weight.
The problem is that it is so comfortable there is no incentive ever to get out of it. I’ve just worked out that I spend 12 hours a day sitting down, making the average person – who passes only nine on their bottom – look quite active.
Yet until last week this sedentary working life was low on my list of things to worry about, much lower, say, than the fact that I forgot to put my dental hygienist appointment in my diary. But then I read a Harvard Business Review blog post saying that sitting is the new smoking. It makes you fat and then it kills you.