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It's widely accepted that sitting around for a long time is bad for us—but Swinburne research has revealed that the time to get moving may come sooner than you think.

The paper is published in the journal npj Exercise Medicine and Health.

Swinburne's Dr. Christian Brakenridge is an expert in 24-hour behaviors like sitting, standing and sleeping and the lead author of the study.

Using specialized shorts with conductive fabric sensors that monitor muscle electrical activity (EMG), his team measured muscle activity in participants' daily lives across more than 7,000 sitting periods.

They found that more than 25 minutes of sitting without interruption leads to lower levels of muscle activity, which in turn may lead to poor health outcomes.

"Our research found that we use our muscles less when sitting for a prolonged time than if sitting for a shorter time," says Brakenridge. "But we found that breaking up sitting with exercise or walking means our muscles are more active during sitting."

Brakenridge says less muscle activity may coincide with decreased blood flow and lower uptake of blood sugar. This can contribute to the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

The good news is that how you sit can have a positive impact.

More "active" types of sitting, potentially including driving a car, talking to friends or working at a desk, may involve tiny muscle movements and are consequently less likely to be as detrimental to our health as sitting down to watch a movie for a couple of hours.

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