Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.

Modern life takes it out of you.

It takes it often and it takes it for free.

You pay the price for your lifestyle and life merely raises an eyebrow.

It's especially bad if you're running a business.

It's so much a part of you that you can't let it go.

You know you should sit less and exercise more, but business gets in the way.

Deals don't get done in the gym. (Well, not many.)

Please, then, stay standing as I tell you about a just-published study that looked at how Americans exercise, how much they sit, and whether anything has changed over the decades.

Researchers led by Wei Bao of the University of Iowa wanted to see whether, over time, Americans had started to heed the warnings about their health.

So they looked at data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys between 2007 and 2016.

It seems like a long time that the government has offered physical activity guidelines.

Specifically, people were advised to partake of at least 150 minutes of moderately intense activity or 75 minutes of vigorous, intense activity. Per week, that is.

The researchers specifically wanted to see whether the release of those guidelines made a difference.

What might you expect the results to be?

That Americans have recommitted themselves to healthier practices? That they're exercising more and sitting less?

I leave it to the study's conclusions to feed your thoughts:

The findings suggest that the adherence rate to the PAG [physical activity guidelines] for aerobic activity in US adults has not improved since the release of the first edition in 2008 but that time spent on sedentary behavior has significantly increased over time.

You might be cheered that, at least, Americans are doing the same amount of exercise. The amount hasn't dropped.

But if I told you that time spent on sedentary behavior had increased -- between 2007-08 and 2015-16 -- from 5.7 hours a day to 6.4 hours a day, might it reflect your own lifestyle?

If there's one thing we're good at, it's excuses.

We work ever harder. The demands on us cascade from all sides.

One of the first things to go is our ability to dedicate time to exercise. One of the other first things to go is realizing just how much time we spend sitting.

Before we know it, we're getting larger and more tired and our health begins to drift in painful directions.

So cancel that meeting and go for a very long walk.