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We've reported several times on the dangers of sitting — how sitting is the new smoking (for example, here, here and here).

Now the American Diabetes Association is encouraging everyone to do something about it, sponsoring National “Get Fit, Don't Sit” Day. As they report, “research shows that sitting for long periods of time increases your risk of death from virtually all health problems. People spend an average of 5 hours and 41 minutes per day sitting at work each week.”

The goal “is to encourage people to get up and move throughout the day.” To help companies with ideas on what that means — and how to get folks up and out of their chairs — the American Diabetes Association has compiled an incredible tool kit with plenty of ideas.

Among our favorites:

• Allow employees to have it be a “work out” wear at work day. They could wear sneakers that day or other workplace appropriate exercise wear.
• Don’t phone or email internally that day, walk to someone’s desk if you need something.
• Turn all meetings that day into walking meetings.
• Encourage employees to participate in “lunch-er-cise.”
• Encourage everyone to take the furthest parking space that day.

The tool kit has lots of other suggestions, too. One key idea (perhaps to keep in mind for next year): Get your executives involved. Leadership matters, and we applaud all companies — and leaders — who lead by example. It's time to get moving.