What is a standing desk?
According to Wikipedia, the A standing desk or stand-up desk is a desk conceived for writing, reading or drawing while standing up or while sitting on a high stool. Nowadays, there are many different styles of standing desks for different vocations. For example, some standing desks are designed for architectural drafting while others are specialized for teacher’s lecterns.
Moreover, some new standing desks’ height can be adjusted with a hand crank, counterbalance system, or an electric motor. This type of standing desk is famous as the “adjustable standing desk”, becoming increasingly popular among office workers day by day. Compared with most seated desks with a standardized height, the adjustable standing desk is made in different heights from 70 to 120 centimeters, permitting users to easily change the height according to their individual body height and personal requirements.
What makes standing desks important and necessary?
After a brief introduction of the (adjustable) standing desk, you may wonder whether it is really so amazing, or necessary for your life. Actually, that depends in some cases. But if you take an office job that requires you to sit hunched over a desk and click away at a computer all day, the standing desk maybe is a necessity to reduce your sedentary habit. Our bodies are built to move, so sitting too long in an office or even the home is bad for our health. It’s time to know further how harmful is the sedentary habit:
Heart Disease: when you sit for a long period for work or entertainment, your body burns less fat for less muscle inactivity, and then your blood flow becomes slow as well. Then the risk of high blood pressure and cholesterol will be obviously increased.
Diabetes: sitting too long affects our body’s insulin response and may lead to diabetes. That’s because our body needs to work harder to absorb sugar and make insulin when sitting. That will put too much stress on the cells that make insulin, and that may be an important diabetes risk factor. Also, there is epidemiological evidence indicating the excessive time of sedentary life can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D).
Dementia risk: with a long time of sitting, your brain could look just like that of someone with dementia. The time of sedentary behavior may be a significant predictor of the amount of thinning in that brain area, which is a forerunner of cognitive decline and dementia in middle-aged and older adults.
Vein thrombosis: sitting for a long period without standing up or moving around can slow down leg blood circulation and lead to problems ranging from varicose veins to deep vein thrombosis, the formation of a blood clot in a vein deep in the body. Deep vein thrombosis can affect large veins in the thigh and leg, and in other parts of the body. When the clot forms in a vein, it may travel to the heart and lungs and finally form a pulmonary embolus, which can trigger shortness of breath, chest pain, etc.
Spinal problems: prolonged seated posture can make your spine sore, stiff, and in pain. Too much sitting will put more stress on the muscles and discs of your back and neck. This posture can lead to the tightness of your hip flexors and pressure and restricted blood flow of your buttock muscles. This muscle is a vital supporter of the spine. In one word, the sedentary puts too much pressure on the lower spines and then results in a herniated lumbar disk.
Dramatic increase in weight: it is well-known that moving muscles can help your body digest the fats and sugars you got from what you eat. Too much sitting will decrease the efficiency of digestion, so those fats and sugars will stay in your body, then finally your body weight may increase dramatically.
Above are some main dangers from sitting too much and many other risks are not included. However, how to save our health from the dangers of sitting for a long period? Of course, we need to be as more active as possible. Even if you have a desk job and there is no much time for you to take a break for walking around to relax, there is still an effective way with which you can minimize your risk of developing a health condition from a sedentary life. That is using a standing desk in your office or home.
Are standing desks really worth it?
To prevent the long-time seated posture from damaging our health, the demand for the standing desk has a big increase over the past few years. If you worry that too much standing, or standing the entire day may also trigger health problems because the extra pressure will be transferred to the circulatory system, then it is worth trying the adjustable standing desk. It allows you to sit and stand at intervals throughout the day. Typically, you can enjoy the following benefits from using a (adjustable) standing desk.
Reduce back pain
Most of the adults will experience back pain over their lifetime, and one of the greatest complaints is the office workers who have to sit all day. With a standing desk, you can suffer less upper back and neck pain. Then you can feel quite comfortable during your work time.
Lower risk of heart disease
Spending less time sitting and more time standing can help lower the risk of blood sugar, cholesterol, etc — all of which can help prevent heart disease. But you should keep in mind that prolonged standing time may also twice the risk of heart disease as prolonged sitting time. So, please get the best control of your standing and sitting time.
Lower risk of obesity
Standing for a while after sitting for a few hours can help consume more calories than the body is absorbing. In such away, you can reduce the risk of obesity by burning about 50 extra calories an hour. Some researches indicate that if you were to stand for three hours each day, it would equal out to 750 calories a week. A piece of exciting news for those who want to lose weight, isn’t it?
Improve mood and productivity
Sitting for a long time may make much depression and anxiety. That’s to say, we will feel depressed after a long period of the seated posture. Under this situation, your work productivity won’t be satisfying. The standing would improve the mode and increase happiness to some extent. And the regular interval between sitting and standing positions also helps with their work productivity.
Believe it or not, those do not cover all benefits of the standing desk. The improvement in physical and mental health can deliver positive effects to your life. So, if you still doubt whether is the standing desk really worth it, you might get some ideas right here.
