A couple of years back, various reports suggested that sitting for eight hours a day was the WORST thing any of us could do to our bodies.

Eight hours at your desk, plus extra time sitting in the bus/car and in front of the TV at night… basically we were all said to be sitting ourselves into an early grave.

The solution? Get a standing desk – something which thankfully hasn't caught on much in Ireland but it definitely a regular sighting in offices across the US.

Now though, new research says sitting might not be as bad as we had all though, or at least it's no better or worse for us than standing.

Rather than trying to work more standing time into your day, scientists in the UK say we should simply aim to get moving whenever we can.

So break up your work day with a stroll at lunch, walk home instead of catching the bus, and keep up regular work-out sessions. 

The Institute of Epidemiology in London collected data from 5,100 government workers over a period of 16 years to research their sitting habits.

Each participant charted how much time they spent sitting at work and in their free time, as well as how often they walked or had an exercise session.

Sitting was not linked to mortality in any of the participants, though the research does note that many of the people studied exercised more than the average British person would.

It's thought previous reports about sitting having a high mortality risk might have been linked to the fact that participants led an extremely sedentary lifestyle.

The moral of the story? Don't freak out about having to sit at a desk all day long, but get moving during your out-of-office hours.