Many of my (male) colleagues have sit-stand desks. With the flip of a switch, the desktop elevates and they can work standing up; another flip and the desk moves back down to its usual position. I had always assumed that my colleagues were using these desks as an excuse to add yet another piece of electronic equipment to their offices. But the other day, hunched over my computer, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the window and wondered if spending 10 hours a day like that was perhaps a mistake.
It’s worth starting by noting that it wasn’t so long ago that sitting at work was considered a benefit, not a downside. The requirement that one stand all day at work is not typically seen as an enticement, and prolonged standing is associated with varicose veins and lower back pain.
However, a recent flurry of studies suggests that too much sitting is associated with every health issue imaginable: cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and just straight-up death. And since a lot of sitting does happen at work, office jobs in particular, people have started to consider whether some standing might be healthful.
There are various low-tech ways to incorporate standing into one’s day — trying to stand up for any part of the job that doesn’t require the computer, for example. But the sit-stand desk (or its less wishy-washy cousin the “standing only” desk) has ballooned in popularity as a way to work while not sitting.
The combination of sitting and standing provided by such a desk seems to decrease worker-reported discomfort rather than increase it. Workers who use these desks report small reductions in back, neck and arm pain. And these improvements do not seem to come at the cost of lower worker productivity.
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