It seems like a pretty innocuous thing, but sitting can shorten your life.

Another study is out, this time from the Archives of Internal Medicine, showing that prolonged sitting throughout the day is just plain unhealthy. Researchers asked subjects to self-report on how long they spent on their rear ends every day, then followed up with them a few years later. They controlled for age, weight, physical activity and general health.

The report showed that people who sit for more than 11 hours a day are 40 percent more likely to die in the next three years than people who sit for less than four hours a day. Those are some pretty significant numbers.

There’s good news and bad news that comes with this study. First the bad: While exercising for more than five hours a week can help reduce these effects, it still didn’t eradicate them. Even people who worked out frequently still saw risk of death go up with more and more time spent on their keister.

The good news is people have a lot of room for improvement. Most adults spend about 90 percent of their free time on their bum, so doing something active instead of loafing on the sofa is always an option. Or, you can bug your boss to invest in one of those standing desks everyone is talking about. Awkward around co-workers? Yes – but healthier, too.

Photo: jonclegg/Flickr