Are Standing Desks Bad For You?

That Apple Can Kill You

Everything is bad for you. Sugar, bad; water, bad; vegetables, bad; standing desk, bad. This may seem incorrect but think about this, everything really is bad for you if you have too much or it’s not the right fit. Let me explain, apples are healthy, naturally sweet but those seeds hiding inside, poison. I mean accidentally swallowing one or two won’t kill you but if you have 50, 100, you might start to feel a little woozy. Water is life, that’s a fact but did you know you could die if you have too much water?

Standing Desks, Yay or Nay

Standing desks are in the same boat, they are very good for your health and have so many benefits but then why does research say they are bad for you? The answer is simple, they aren’t telling you the whole story, most studies on standing desks only focus on the stationary, nonadjustable variety. How can two people with completely different heights work properly and ergonomically at the same desk? They can’t! What fits one person will almost always not fit another, which is why the adjustable variety is the only way to go in order for a person to get the proper ergonomic fit that suits their own personal needs. Study's have shown that properly calibrating your Height Adjustable Electric Standing Desks can make the difference between harming your back to helping your back. There have been reports of people actually hurting their back from using those ancient desk risers that you need to manually prop up which if done wrong can actually hurt your lower back. That is why when people generalize standing desks, they really need to take into consideration that the sit-stand desk industry is constantly evolving. The sit stand desks now have dual motor options making going up and down as easy as pressing a single button.

It’s Time To Get Up

There is no doubt that the amount of time the average person sits is unhealthy. Sitting for any prolonged amount of time is bad let alone the 10 - 13 hours a typical office worker does. There’s the time you sit in traffic, both to and from work, the hours you sit at your desk, when you eat lunch, when you sit down for dinner and lounge in front of the TV to unwind. Then it’s off to bed for 7- 10 hours and you do it all over again five days a week all year round. All that time sitting adds up so easily and accumulates over the years which manifests into back pain, neck pain, and health problems such as diabetes and heart issues.

Again, no two people are alike so the daily routine can very but usually just slightly, you might walk a bit more cause you take transit, or you might take your dog out, but it is safe to say the majority of your time is sitting down in a sedentary position that can freeze up joints and limit blood circulation. That loss of blood circulation leads to a decrease in productivity since we need that oxygen to flow to our brains and give us the energy that we so desperately need, not to mention we end up burning so few calories we tend to easily gain more weight which leads to a whole different set of health problems.

 

Stand Up For What’s Right

In order for standing desks to be beneficial to our health it has to be of the adjustable kind in order to maximize the features and get the perfectly ergonomic set up we possibly can. Obviously, standing for 8 hours a day isn’t good for you which is why you need to alternate sitting and standing, keeping your body moving and always in an ergonomic position. Little changes is all it takes to start to feel a difference and get into a healthy habit. Sit-stand desks are the future of all offices and the faster companies realize the many benefits it has and start adding them to their offices the better off we all will be.

 

Lastly, Effydesk will be providing free ergonomic presentations to offices all over Vancouver Canada. We will be doing presentations and on-site training and assessment of proper posture. Making sure your computer screen and your monitor desk mounts are in optimal positions. Please contact us for details and bookings.