Stand Up! Stand Up! The Transition to Working at A Standing Desk

Stand Up! Stand Up!

The Transition to Working at A Standing Desk

There is a saying that 'sitting is the new smoking' and though I am not sure it is that bad, I do believe we in the developed world sit too much. I know many people that sit for an hour plus commute each way each day for work, sit for 8 hours at work then sit at home in the evening. If there are things we can do to change that we should pursue the change. And I have finally joined the ranks of those using a standing desk.

To be honest I have wanted a standing desk for a few years now. Yet when I first enquired about it there was some serious resistance. But after a trip to Phoenix where almost half the office has standing desks it was back on my mind. Then a few other people in the office started converting their cubicle desks to standing desks I asked my manager if we could look into it for me. Depending on the style of the workstation there were a number of different solutions. I am very happy with how mine worked out. We had originally ordered legs that would make the center piece of my desk adjustable manually. But the wrong one was ordered and could not go high enough as I needed at 42 inch high platform.

I have now been using the standing desk for 2 months and absolutely love it. It did take a while to get adjusted to it. I had some hip and lower back pain off and on during the first 2 weeks but after that it has been smooth sailing. And we are now up to about 20 people with standing desks in our office. A few have come by tried mine and made the decision to jump out of their chairs and join the ranks of us standing up.

And Mark Sisson from Mark's Daily Apple has written often about standing desk, two of my favorites are 15 Tips for Standup Workstation Users and How-to Guide: Standing at Work.

In fact the only thing that I think would be better than the standing desk would be the walking desk ala Arthur Slade, here, here and here.

For now I am very happy with my standing desk and the health benefits for not sitting all day long! And with an organization that not only allows but encourages healthy lifestyles.