Working from home used to be a luxury, but these days it has become something of a necessity for millions of office workers worldwide.
This means that, instead of working at your comfortable, ergonomic office desk, purpose-built and specially designed for you to sit at all day, you instead have to work from home however you can.
For most people, this involves a laptop perched precariously on a kitchen counter or their lap. For the lucky few, this means sitting at their desk at home.
However, no matter how great your desk might be at home, you probably did not originally plan to sit there for 9 hours a day. That, combined with the fact that there is no boss peering round the corner watching your browsing habits, means that you are bound to start slouching and developing some terrible posture.
Getting a standing desk might just fix that, and with Christmas right around the corner, there has never been a better time to invest in yourself and get a standing desk to improve your new working-from-home life.
Why Posture Matters
Correct posture is one of those things that we have all been criticized for in our lives. Whether by parents or teachers, we have been told to straighten up and sit properly for almost as long as we’ve been sitting.
Unfortunately, our parents can be right sometimes; posture is actually incredibly important, especially for those that sit for a living.
When you sit in an office environment, in the same position for hours on end, you are putting a huge amount of strain on your back that the human spine just isn’t evolved to cope with.
Again and again, studies have shown that poor posture in the office leads to serious back pain and further injuries, as well as just generally an awful living situation.
Just because you are likely working at home doesn’t mean that you can avoid practicing good posture.
But how do you actively practice good posture? How do you ensure that you don’t mess up your back for the rest of your life?
How A Standing Desk Helps
A standing desk is definitely one of those fad pieces of equipment that has done the rounds over the last decade, but in this case, it is for a good reason.
Standing desks are all about encouraging you to stand instead of sitting during your workday, but they do so much more than just forcing you to get on your feet.
Standing is way better for your back and neck, even for long periods of time, because that is what we were evolved to do.
We didn’t evolve to spend our lives sitting on our tailbones, typing away at computers! We were designed to be out hunting gazelle on the savannah plains!
While the savannah plains are now pretty far away, and most modern diets don’t really focus on gazelle anymore, our bodies still crave standing up and being active.
Studies have shown that standing doesn’t just help reduce back pain, but it also leads to better weight control, as well as sugar regulation in the body.
Pretty much all of our body’s functions prefer to be standing rather than sitting, so how can you spend 9 hours a day sitting at a desk?
A standing desk solves all of this.
As long as you invest in a comfortable pair of shoes, a standing desk allows you to work comfortably while standing, burning calories, and maintaining proper posture for your entire workday.
How To Pick The Perfect Standing Desk
There are all sorts of different standing desks available that you can buy, each with its own benefits and drawbacks.
From the simplest standing desk that is really just a very tall desk to the custom measured, extendable, and retractable fancier designs, there is a standing desk out there for everyone’s needs.
The best thing to do is to pick a budget and try to shop around until you find a desk that fits your needs.
While you can get standing desks for surprisingly affordable prices, you can go all out and get a built-in USB port, integrated drawer setups, or remote-controlled height systems.
Even though it might seem like a lot of money to spend on a piece of furniture, if you are doing any kind of working from home and plan to be sitting at your desk for a considerable period of time, a standing desk might be just the sort of thing that you need.
Christmas time is almost here, and while a standing desk might be a bit much of a gift to get someone else for Christmas, there is nothing stopping you from getting yourself one.
Why not take this Christmas time to reward your hard work and give your back, neck, and body a break with a standing desk for Christmas?
