tasoskakour

Motivation

If you spend a lot of hours sitting on your office chair due to work or just spending too much time in front of a computer monitor, then you're like me and this article is meant for us.

I personally spend at least 40-50 hours per week sitting on my office chair due to work. If we take into account the time of which I just spend on the PC surfing the web, watching videos etc then the total sum of those hours is definitely more!

I imagine we don't need a doctor to dictate to us how harmful this is to our health. I'm sure you've heard (and maybe you've experienced it yourselves) that prolonged sitting has detrimental effects on one's health like increase of excess fat in the body, slowing down of metabolic rate, increased blood pressure/blood sugar and of course conditions like back/hip/feet/wrist pain, hernias, hump back due to bad sitting posture and others.

Consequently, if your work or your everyday life forces you to work a lot of hours sitting on a chair (like I am), then it's definitely worth thinking about if a standing desk would be good for you.

Standing Desk

In my case, after I experienced some moments of back pain due to prolonged sitting at my work, I decided to invest in a standing desk. That's why on September 2020 I bought my first standing desk which I still use on a daily basis.

I can say that after several months of using this kind of desk I'm in position to lay out below some of its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

✅ You're not sitting so much

Obviously its main advantage is that you're capable of working while standing on your feet thus avoiding spending so many hours sitting on your chair. Of course, in order for this to work and be beneficial for you you'll have to not spend so many hours standing and your feet should stand on a soft surface like a mat or a carpet. Spending too many hours standing on your feet in a static position is as bad as being sitted. The key is not to be in either of those two states for long hours. Usually throughout my day I switch from standing to sitting position and vice versa.

✅ Sometimes it can help on the flow of my thought

This is highly subjective but sometimes the fact that you're standing could help you on your flow of thought in order to solve a particular problem. Personally while facing a problem that requires creative, not robotic thinking it helps me to get up from my chair, look at somewhere else other than my monitor, take 2-3 steps and literally speaking "walk away" from the problem and face it from a different perspective. Working while standing helps me to reach this state faster.

✅ It's cool to make calls and talk while standing

When you're talking to someone face-to-face don't you prefer sometimes to stand on your feet? Well, the same applies to online calls as well. I can do my calls and talk while standing and walking throughout my office, isn't that cool? 😎

✅ You can share it with others

If for some reason you share your office with someone else, then it can be easily adjusted for everyone's needs, either for the desired sitting or standing position. Of course this "advantage" does not apply at all if you already have a chair with adjustable height which is convenient for everyone that's using that office. 😝

Disadvantages

❌ Cost

It's reasonable that a standing desk is more expensive than a regular desk. Of course this is an investment with the goal of saving our health and our back, so it may be worth it after all!

❌ Stability & Monitor Wobble

There are a lot of different types of standing desks out there, but their main design is that they consist of a wood surface (or other material) that is placed on top of two office legs with adjustable height. In most cases it's always certain that a regular office with sturdy feet will always be more stable than a standing desk with adjustable height. Personally I have noticed some kind of slight monitor wobble while I'm typing in the standing position.

❌ You can't put shelves or other objects above

This may not be that important, but due to the fact that this desk doesn't have a fixed height, we can't place any objects like shelves above it as it's possible that the monitor (or something else) will hit them while we increase the height of the office.

Conclusion

Eventually, I think that it's worth giving the standing desk a shot. I personally was feeling a bit odd and weird at first as I was doing my work while standing, but it's something that I quickly got used to it.

Of course it's worth mentioning that it's not necessary for someone to buy this kind of desk to avoid having health issues. I believe that if they make sure they have a good sitting posture on a convenient and ergonomic chair while taking short frequent 2-3 min breaks (e.g every hour) in order to stand on their feet, make a stretch and just move a little then they have definitely taken a big step in maintaining a healthy daily routine. It's just that, a standing desk might help them to follow the above steps more easily and naturally.

Finally, it's worth mentioning (although I'm sure you already know it) that something that will definitely help us to maintain a healthy lifestyle and body posture is to exercise, especially lifting weights! 🏋️‍♂️

I wish you liked this post and don't forget to leave a reaction below!

What kind of office do you use? 🙂