It’s no secret that a sedentary lifestyle and excessive sitting can be harmful to both your physical and cognitive health. In fact, whether you continue to sit in an office, spend hours in front of the tv, or just like to relax all day on your front porch, sitting for an extended time is terrible for your health. As one commentator noted, “Sitting all day is not how our bodies were meant to be used.” The WHO estimates that 2 million deaths a year are linked to a sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical activity, which means that a sedentary lifestyle is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. That’s especially worrisome given that up to 85% of the world’s population is estimated to lead a sedentary lifestyle.

But what if you sit all day but can also sneak in some daily exercise? Will that counter the ill effects of too much sitting? Some recent studies suggest maybe not. First, according to a recent article in the Washington Post, even a 30-minute daily workout or 30 minutes of physical activity may not be enough to balance your status as an “active couch potato.” According to a study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, if you exercise but then spend the rest of the day sitting, it’s almost as if you never exercised in the first place. So rather than thinking once and done when it comes to physical activity each day, to counteract the perils of sitting, you’ll be better off if you also add in some regular, ongoing movement or activity. However, in another recent study published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, 30-40 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (house chores, cycling, even gardening) was reported to be enough to counteract the higher risk of death associated with excessive sitting. That would be the minimum amount of activity you need to counteract a sedentary lifestyle (considered 10 hours of sitting a day.) Either way, it’s clear that if you plan on sitting a lot, you also need to plan on moving that same day to counteract the consequences. For more on this study, stand up and read here.

But what if your workload or lifestyle doesn’t lend itself to permitting a big block of daily activity to counteract all the time in your chair? Well, a brand new study out of Columbia University and also published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise may give you an “out.” According to lead researcher Keith Diaz, he and his colleagues were in search of the least amount of activity one could undertake in order to counteract the negative effects of excessive sitting. Their findings? By looking at changes in blood sugar levels and blood pressure (both risk factors for cardiac disease), a five-minute light walk every half hour should do the trick. A brief walk every 30 minutes reduced blood sugar spikes and brought down blood pressure sufficiently to offset the harm of too much sitting. Given that excessive sitting can lead to chronic disease, this seems like an easy and quite doable way to counteract the harm. For more on this study, read the insights of Dr. Diaz here.