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Standing Desks May Not Be Healthier Than Sitting All Day, Say Scientists (fortune.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a Fortune article: Standing desks are the fashionable furniture of choice at the moment, but they may not really be the healthier alternative to, well, a chair. A review of studies into the benefits of "workplace interventions" to reduce sitting at work, such as sit-stand desks, are inconclusive, according to researchers from a Cochrane work group. That's because there's little evidence of the long-term effects of standing at your desk. "At present there is very low to low-quality evidence that sit-stand desks may decrease workplace sitting between thirty minutes to two hours per day without having adverse effects at the short or medium term," scientists wrote in an updated Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews study released this week.
Okay, so the next piece of fashionable furniture will be the jogging desk.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Hopefully you have arms like plastic man that stretch to match the distance of the keyboard.
When I sit, my back and neck hurt because I slouch when I'm concentrating. When I stand, my back and legs hurt because I slouch when I'm concentrating.
On my treadmill desk, I never slouch, it's impossible to slouch while walking but it doesn't hurt concentration. So that's the ideal setting for me.
Instead of a sit-stand, I have an HDMI splitter and a wireless keyboard. Monitor at a sitting desk, monitor at the treadmill desk, they show the same thing, just move between them if I have to sit but I haven't used the sitting desk in months.
Health effects, whatever. I feel better when I can change positions every now and then. Sitting all day leaves me feeling tired and my back gets sore (yes, I've tried lots of different chairs). With a sit/stand desk I change positions every hour or two, switching between standing, sitting on a moderately-ergonomic desk chair and sitting on an exercise ball. The latter is actually fairly hard work to sustain for a long time, but I think my core has gotten stronger for doing it. Standing eventually makes my feet hurt. No one position is ideal, but changing it up seems to work great.
Anyone get the idea that this whole "health" idea of the standing desk was invented by IKEA, or other office furniture manufacturer?
I know that I have been sitting behind a computer screen for about 30 years of my life, and that now I suffer from chronic back pain. So, at home I switched to a standing desk, and at least on the weekends I have some relief.
I'll stop by in another 30 years and let you know how I've made out.
I don't understand people's obsession throwing money at an expensive adjustable desk. Just get a drafting table and a tall chair. Problem solved.
My back pain disappeared after getting a new chair.
Error reading device 'Signature'. (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?
Big Chair, buying off scientists yet again.
The review article is not evaluating the health benefits of sit/stand. It's about whether an employee actually sits less if they have a sit/stand desk (or just uses it as an expensive sitting desk). The review says that it doesn't reduce sitting time by very much, which has nothing to do with health. In fact, the review article accepts the health benefits as a given: "Physical inactivity at workplaces and particularly increased sitting has been linked to increase in cardiovascular disease, obesity and overall mortality."
Don't draw any conclusions from the Fortune article. The Fortune author obviously has a bias, and is trying to support his point of view using an article that, in fact, contradicts him.
If you actually read it, the study is about whether standing desks reduce the amount of time you spend sitting.
It doesn't say anything about whether sitting is bad except in the "background" section, which says "Physical inactivity at workplaces and particularly increased sitting has been linked to increase in cardiovascular disease, obesity and overall mortality."
So, pretty much the opposite of what the article is implying.
I have a tabletop laptop stand that I put my keyboard/mouse on when I want to stand. $30, and it even has a built in USB cooling fan if I want an invigorating breeze while I work. My company offered some $2k rising robo-desk monstrosity, but I'd prefer to keep my $30 stand (and the remaining $1,970, obviously).
I'm certain that it isn't healthier than sitting because both my father and my uncle worked 40 hours per week standing through their life, and both needed knee double replacement after retirement. Moving around is the correct action. Not standing nor sitting all day.
Non sequitur: Your facts are uncoordinated.
I went a step further and have a monitor lower than desk height so I get in a good squat pose now and then.
Boss: Larry - are you taking a dump in your cube?
Larry: No sir, just watching the compiler errors come in from the last build.
Boss: I see. Good form. Carry on.
Read Mark Rippletoe's "Starting Strength" book for a guide on proper form to do squats and other weight exercises. I have had back problems for a while now and simply exercising more, mixing running with weights has greatly improved the situation (and my overall health in general).
There is also a lot to stretching, I've also been taking a weekly pilates class for a few months now and that seems to help quite a bit as well. Programming for many, many hours in a char leads to all kinds of things being super tight that should not be.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
https://xkcd.com/1329/
The cushioned side goes up.
Or do you develop for Apple?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I used one for several years, but it isn't a panacea. The important thing for any chair is that once you start slouching it can really be damaging.
Now I stand 90% on a good day due to a couple bulged disks. The other 10% is generally split between sitting and laying on the floor in my office.
Up shots of standing: I do burn substantially more calories, back doesn't hurt as much, reduces length of meetings.
Cons: for me, substantially reduced focus, does not actually improve my situation (just keeps it from getting worse), and you still need to be able to change positions frequently.
But, sit/stand desks are a lot like inversion tables and trampolines: easy to get for free from someone who doesn't want it anymore.
... the problem is not standing or sitting, it's work ...
Totof
They probably seem more comfortable when drunk. I'll have to try drinking while working. For science.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.