Computers, e-mail, the Internet and smart phones have revolutionized the way America does business. Compared to manual typewriters and carbon paper, or pneumatic tubes that delivered handwritten messages between floors in air-propelled capsules, today's workplace is a technological marvel.

But that technological progress has come with a price. Today's workforce is far more sedentary than the workforce of generations past. Instead of walking down the hall to confer with a colleague, we send an e-mail or text message. Instead of walking to the reference shelf to look up an obscure fact or figure, we use the Internet.

This has produced a heavier and less healthy workforce. The combination of reduced exercise and increased weight often translates into higher health care costs and lower productivity.

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