Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Have You Tried a Standing Desk?
An anonymous reader writes: Evidence is piling up that sitting down all day is really bad for you. I work primarily from home, and as I grow older, I'm starting to worry about long term consequences to riding a desk full-time. We talked about this a few years ago, but the science has come a long way since then, and so have the options for standing desks. My questions: do you use a standing desk? What kind of setup do you have? There are a lot of options, and a lot of manufacturers. Further studies have questioned the wisdom of standing all day, so I've been thinking about a standing/sitting combo, and just switching every so often. If you do this, do you have time limits or a particular frequency with which you change from sitting to standing?
I'm also curious about under-desk treadmills — I could manage slowly walking during parts of my work, and the health benefits are easy to measure. Also, any ergonomic tips? A lot of places seem to recommend: forearms parallel to the ground, top of monitor at eye level, and a pad for under your feet. Has your experience been the same? Those of you who have gone all-out on a motorized setup, was it worth the cost? The desks are dropping in price, but I can still see myself dropping upward of $1k on this, easily.
I'm also curious about under-desk treadmills — I could manage slowly walking during parts of my work, and the health benefits are easy to measure. Also, any ergonomic tips? A lot of places seem to recommend: forearms parallel to the ground, top of monitor at eye level, and a pad for under your feet. Has your experience been the same? Those of you who have gone all-out on a motorized setup, was it worth the cost? The desks are dropping in price, but I can still see myself dropping upward of $1k on this, easily.
I could get used to it, but since it's so easy to move it can also cope with the recent findings that a mix of standing and sitting works best.
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I put together a standing desk from Ikea bits and pieces with a chair the allowed me to sit at the desk, stand, rest.
What I learned: Standing in one position all day, especially on a hard surface locks your knees and muscles. You need a soft surface, to stand on.
Being able to sit for some tasks and stand for others, is perfect. But you need awareness to switch between the them regularly and get away from your desk.
I could not stand a treadmill desk. It's essentially multi-tasking. It's like drinking coffee while walking.
So... it's not just one or other. It's balance...
go on craigslist, buy a cheap treadmill. You don't need a desk specific one. put a board across the treadmill arms and put your laptop/screen, keyboard and mouse on it. Adjust the height with some 2x4"s. set the speed at 1-2mph, any faster and you'll be concentrating more on walking than working. On conference calls, teh whine of the treadmill does go over the call, stop walking when talking.
I switched to doing about 75-80% of my work standing up about two years ago. I stand for a half hour, lie down flat for 3 minutes. Rinse, repeat.
It will take a bit to get used to it, but I have more energy through the day, and just plain feel much better. When I'm in a situation where I need to sit all day now I really notice how much harder it is on the body.
Important point: You need GOOD SHOES. I have really comfy ergonomic sandals, makes a massive difference.
using the ikea LACK side table on top of my normal desk, which puts my keyboard and mouse right and hand-height. You can use a circular saw to cut the legs off to your exact specifications.
+ tall VIVO desk mount monitor stand, which raises the monitor & laptop to eye height.
+ hog heaven floor mat to stand on.
The rare times I need to sit, I just unplug my laptop and take it over to a chair. In theory, the monitor height is easily adjustable via a fast-latch, and the ikea stand can be removed, so within a minute I could be back to a normal desk - but i find the change of environment from disconnecting and moving to a separate space is more relaxing.
My lower back used to hurt CONSTANTLY, but since I've been standing it has been a night-and-day improvement. I can't recommend it enough. the transition period was surprisingly easy. I suggest taking your chair away completely for the first week or two - if it's nearby you will be tempted to cheat, and far more likely to give up, I think.
Works very well. You can set it at any height you like. Not too expensive either, at least as compared to other motorized adjustable desks. I'm pleased with it overall.
I have the Uplift 900. My company was very generous with the desk budget, so I went all out and got an 80" wide top. The 80" width is big enough for all my work, but if I were buying it again, I would *not* buy the desk top from Uplift. The price is too high for the quality- I think it probably costs a fortune to ship a big heavy desk top. The digital memory keypad is well worth the money. The Uplift castor wheels are also worthwhile. The Uplift keyboard tray is solid, but nothing special. There are better keyboard trays out there, and I definitely recommend getting a keyboard tray. The cable management kit is overpriced and next to useless.
Keep in mind that at standing height, the desk does have a little bit of wobble, especially if you use the castor wheels. My monitor was unsafely wobbly and I had to use a wood clamp to clamp it to the desk for safety. Part of this is due to my monitor- for a 28" screen, the included stand has a small (too small) footprint and odd weight distribution. For most monitors this probably won't be a problem.
I tend to stand until after lunchtime, then sit the rest of the day, depending on how heavy a lunch I eat. My back problems from a car accident 2 years ago have nearly disappeared. Best feature of a standing desk is eating lunch- your lap isn't in the path of falling food objects. If there is a spill imminent, you can simply dodge out of the way. I haven't spilled lunch on my pants since I got the desk.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Here's a previous reply I made on the same subject:
I'm a coder who stands all day ...and I've been doing it for over two years now. I used to experience back pain when I sat all day, but that went away after a month or so. I used to get sleepy after lunch when I sat all day... not so much anymore. You really do get used to it. A few suggestions for those who want to try it:
1) Make the switch the first day you get back from a longer holiday and are already out of your normal routine.
2) You *must* get a nice floor mat, preferably a dense memory foam mat designed for standing cubes. Working in your socks (if your employer will let you) while standing on said mat almost feels like a foot massage.
3) Another *must* - don't get a desk-height chair! At least, not for a while. You'll find yourself sitting way too often and never get adjusted to standing all day. Most of my fellow "standing" co-workers that have tall chairs sit at least 80% of the time.
4) It takes a couple weeks to get used to standing. Stick with it.
"False hope is why we'll never run out of natural resources!" - Lewis Black
I've been using a standup desk exclusively for over a decade now and I'll never willingly go back to sitting all day.
Couple of thoughts:
1. Make it tall enough so you have to stand straight up and look straight ahead (not look down or up at your screen).
2. I like mine to be deep so the keyboard is far in and I can lay mt arms out on the desktop while typing. Hell, my son spent much of the first year of his life sleeping for hours on a pad on my desktop nestled between my arms, chest and keyboard while I worked.
3. Get a really tall drafters chair. While standing is nice; it also nice to be able to take a seat once in a while for a few minutes or while stuck on an exasperating conference call.
4. Get a small step stool or bucket or something that you can put 1 foot on at a time to bend one leg. This gives you a chance to rest one leg -- it really helps especially when getting started.
I used to have the common hunch of a programmer; switching to a standup desk fixed my posture so I stand up straight and don't have a hunch any longer.
I'm standing at an Ikea electric sit/stand desk for the last 6 months and absolutely love it. I start standing in the morning and usually take a sit-break early to mid-afternoon then up and down a handful of times thru the afternoon - mostly standing with 20 minute breaks every once in a while. It's an excellent way to avoid the commitment of standing 100% of the time and the knee/foot/cushioning issues that standing all day raises.
It's been absolutely astounding for my back - keeping my core body muscles shifting and moving all day is an absolute joy.
I thought I'd need to "work up to standing" but I pretty much hit 80-85% right out of the gate and it's stayed pretty consistent.
I absolutely love it and I'd encourage anyone that can afford to give it a swing - it'll cost yout about $500 to give it a try, a couple hundred more for the corner desk which gives you a lot more space for notebooks, reference material, etc.
This. The real problem isn't sitting or standing: it's being still.
As standing desks have become more of a fad in the last few years, longer-term research is finally starting to come out regarding their effects, and everything I've seen so far indicates that its users are basically just trading one set of issues with sitting desks (i.e. circulatory problems, certain spinal issues, heart problems) for a different set of issues with standing desks (i.e. foot problems, different spinal issues, heart problems).
In both cases, the research is indicating that simply increasing the amount of activity in your routine alleviates the worst of the concerns, which is why it's so important to build regular breaks into your day where you get up and stretch, walk around, or at the very least do something that gets you out of your usual position, whether that's sitting or standing.
Standing has the benefit of predisposing its practitioners towards more regular activity, which can be a benefit, to be sure, but if all you're doing is trading sitting for standing without otherwise changing your routine, you really aren't going to see a net improvement. At best, you'll see a temporary relief of the symptoms specific to sitting before you start to develop the symptoms specific to standing.
Easier - include an elevated chair so that the desk does not have to be adjusted. I read recently (within past six months) that walking for five minutes undoes the damage of an hour of sitting. I probably read it here, in fact. If we just take a five minute walk break every hour, it wouldn't be so bad. Personally, I gave up snacking while working (yes, another fat computer programmer, reformed) and drink water instead... which makes me have to go to the bathroom a lot, which gets me moving a lot.
Stupid sexy Flanders.