If you have been to an office lately, chances are that you have encountered people standing at their desks. They may tell you all about the kinds of benefits they get from their standing desk as opposed to their seated colleagues.
But how much of it is true? Are these desks worth anything? Their prices can be astronomical if you don’t know where to buy them for a reasonable price. Are they worth the money, or just a passing fad?
You Won’t Lose Any Weight
One of the arguments often put forward by the proponents of standing desks is that standing spends more calories than sitting, which means that eight hours of standing at work times five days a week amounts to something significant. However, in the only reputable and scientific study about this topic, the results are far less convincing.
In a double-blind study, the researchers compared standing, sitting, and walking scenarios with similar conditions. The results for sitting and standing at a desk were very small. Sitting required about 80 calories per hour, whereas standing expended just 8 more, at 88. For comparison, walking required more than 200 calories per hour.
So, the bottom line is that the calorie consumption is not significantly higher when standing compared to sitting. Are standing desks useless then? Well, not quite. There are some other benefits which can still convince you that they are useful.
Sugar Levels
If you are concerned about your blood sugar levels, whether because you are diabetic or just extra careful about your health, you will be happy to learn that there are strong indications that standing could help regulate blood sugar levels.
After a meal, your blood sugar spikes and that can make you feel drowsy and generally not well. However, your body is hard at work to regulate that situation. Insulin is released into your bloodstream and it lowers the sugar levels to acceptable numbers. Standing seems to make this process quicker and easier. The most logical explanation is that the blood circulates quicker and better while you are standing, so the insulin can get to all parts of your body quicker.
Sitting Pains
If you have ever had to sit for an extended period of time, especially while slightly hunched over a computer, you have probably experienced the pain associated with it. The most common painful areas are the lower back and shoulders. The main source of those pain is bad posture.
When you are standing at your desk, you avoid these problems. Your posture has less influence on your working pose, so the pain can be reduced and even disappear now that the main cause of it has been removed.
Health Benefits
Even though you will not lose any weight with it, the standing desk does have some health benefits, particularly those which are associated with standing rather than sitting. The most commonly cited of those is better circulation which prevents blood clotting. This brings down the risk of many other cardiovascular problems, including a stroke and a heart attack. Another common illness which has been linked to sitting is colon cancer. The colon cancer which can be linked to sitting is caused by mechanical damage, rather than by chemical and biological processes.
Drawbacks
Even though it is being lauded as the savior of office workers’ health, the concept of standing desks is not without its flaws. The most important one is that standing for eight hours can be detrimental to your joints, knees in particular. Fortunately, there are transformer desks, which enable you to choose how you do your work – standing up or sitting down. You just need to know a place where you can find them, like https://www.shoreofficewarehouse.com/.
In the end, you have to decide for yourself what is best for you. There are benefits and drawbacks to both kinds of desks. You should never forget the benefits of light stretching exercises every once in a while.
