Sitting too much is overwhelmingly terrible for your health. When looking at ways to be more active during a workday, it can prove quite difficult. While they are a quite new trend in working, standing desk prove to be effective at many benefits to our health when compared to sitting at our desks.
What is a standing desk?
An alternative to the stationary desk that caters to only chair sitting, standing desks are height adjustable and allows the user to alternate from sitting to standing conveniently at will. It’s known to potentially decrease the downsides of sitting too much and help with varying health effects.
Increase in Productivity
Now that you are no longer slouching towards your work in a chair and your body is no longer allowed to slip into those afternoon lulls and naps, you are directed into increased productivity. You’ll have more energy and an increased mood which your work will see the benefits of.
In a study on over 100 young workers, they found no decrease in normal work activities such as typing, phone use, or writing. It can even prove to increase the effectiveness of these daily activities when the long-term is accounted for when compared to the traditional sitting work.
Standing can also increase your mobility, as you don’t need to constantly leave your chair to get up and accomplish something, just simply take a few steps.
Health Benefits
A study presented with bus conductors that have operated buses standing in comparison to their peers who operated the buses sitting have shown the standing conductors a decrease in heart-related conditions. While you’ll be moving your company, and not a bus, you’ll reap the same heart-healthy benefits.
One of the most prevalent complaints among office workers, standing can also be beneficial to those with back troubles and pain. Standing aligns the spine and molds the rest of your body to a proper posture that will decrease your back pain and increase productivity in all the other areas of your life as well. It is recommended that you ease into standing slowly to prevent any major back adjustments that may cause pain, as well as splitting your time among sitting and standing.
This is why the adjustable standing desk is so valuable. You don’t need to be standing all day, and you shouldn’t be. A proper way of going about standing and sitting is a transition of your work, which will also increase your productivity as well. In the morning, choose projects and work tasks that need a lot of attention and high energy work. For these types of tasks, stand for them until you’re finished through the morning. For those tasks that are a bit more passive like email, meetings, and reports choose to sit.