Modern ergonomics focuses greatly on the importance of stepping away from the sedentary lifestyle. With all the time we spend sitting at our workstations, it is inevitable that we will find ourselves suffering from some of the consequences of inactivity.
When it comes to office work specifically, there is not much most people can do about it. After all, they do have to complete their work on time, but they can’t be doing so at the risk of their own health, can they?
In the past, it was common for employers and employees alike to just suck it up and deal with it since there wasn’t much of an option otherwise. Nowadays, with all the emphasis being put on occupational safety, ergonomics is becoming increasingly important.
And that’s why, nowadays, we have the benefits of adjustable standing desks. But what are the benefits of a standing desk, and why should you invest in it?
How Can a Sit-Stand Desk Benefit You?
A sit-stand desk – also called a standing desk, stand-up desk, and a variety of other names – is a desk that lets you work comfortably while sitting and standing. There are some desks that are meant only for working while standing, but most versions you’d find nowadays are adjustable, so you can change the height depending on whether you want to sit while you work or stand.
Using a sit-stand desk can have a number of benefits for your health and productivity, and if nothing else, can at least minimize the harm of sitting for very long. While your workstations don’t necessarily have to incorporate such desks if you’re serious about ergonomics, your
Let’s consider some of the benefits of sit-stand desks.
Lowers The Risk of Weight Gain and Obesity
You gain weight when you burn fewer calories than you take in, and lose it when it’s the other way around. Exercise is usually the best and most effective way to gain weight because you burn calories very fast, but even something as simple as choosing to stand instead of sitting can make a difference.
In fact, research shows that by standing for one afternoon instead of sitting, you burn over 170 extra calories than you would otherwise.
This shows that sitting for long periods of time results in weight gain, obesity, and even some metabolic diseases.
Lowering Blood Sugar Levels
After meals, if your blood sugar levels rise, that’s bad for your health, and this is especially true for patients with diabetes or insulin resistance. Studies show that standing for 180 minutes after a meal – which would be around 3 hours – resulted in a decrease in blood sugar levels up to 43% more than if that amount of time was spent sitting.
This could explain why sitting for long periods of time also carries the risk of diseases like diabetes. By using a standing desk, patients who are at risk of diabetes can avoid being diagnosed. Even if the disease itself is not a risk, high blood sugar levels are still unhealthy, and it is better to stand than to sit as it is.
Lowering Risk of Heart Disease
There has been plenty of research on the correlation between sitting for longer periods of time and heart disease. The general understanding is that prolonged sitting can increase the risk of heart disease by up to 147%, and is so harmful that even an hour’s worth of continuous vigorous exercise may not be able to undo the harmful effects of spending one day sitting.
Standing desks also help improve blood flow, which can ensure a health circulatory system.
As such, by using standing desks, this risk can be greatly reduced since the amount of time spent sitting is also minimized.
Reducing Back Pain
Back pain is such a common complaint among office workers that you’d be surprised to find one that doesn’t have back pains. A common cause of this problem is the fact that so much of the time spent in the office is spent sitting.
The research was done to determine if standing desks showed any positive impact on people who suffered from chronic back pain, and showed that after using standing desks for several weeks, there was a 32% improvement, which is quite significant!
Even using sit-stand desks for as little as a month can show significant improvement in back and neck discomfort.
Improving Mood and Energy Levels
Besides just the physical benefits, standing desks also have a number of upsides when it comes to mental health and energy. Standing desks result in significantly less fatigue for employees in comparison to sitting desks.
Longer sedentary time is also linked with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. These problems can also be reduced by incorporating standing desks into the workspace. By improving employees’ mood and mental condition, they will feel more energetic and productive.
Boost in Productivity and Creativity
When you consider that standing desks improve mental health, it is no surprise that aspects of your work like productivity and creativity, which are linked to mental health, will also improve.
The concern around standing desks is that it is difficult to carry out fine motor tasks like typing and writing, but this is not true. When the desk is adjusted correctly to your level, these tasks are just as easily carried out while standing as they are while sitting.
In fact, there was a study carried out on a group of office employees for this exact purpose and found that there was no difference in the output of their work while sitting or standing.
Results in Longevity
Most people will not think about it this far, but longer sedentary time is also linked with early death. This is unsurprising, given how closely linked sitting is with problems like diabetes and heart disease.
Research shows that people who spend most of their time sitting are about 50% more likely to die early than those who stand more. In fact, there is such a strong link that it is said that reducing the total sitting time in the day by only 3 hours will increase the average life expectancy by about 2 years. That’s a pretty significant number!
Should You Have Sit-to-Stand Workstations?
The answer is a big, resounding yes! You should have sit-to-stand workstations if possible, given all the benefits around them.
Of course, you can’t spend the entire day standing. It’s pretty unreasonable to expect workers to get all their work done standing, especially when you have an 8-hour shift. While it would be great if you could spend the whole day standing, it is not a very realistic option.
That is why sit-stand desks are so helpful, because you can get rid of the damage caused by sitting for long periods of time and get the benefits of standing, with the same desk!
