Standing Desks....

Bulletproof said:

Oooh, a topic I've spent waaaaay too much time thinking about. For me, sitting all day is bad for my body and worse for my mental well-being. It's a real problem, and no amount of hiking on the weekends and time in the gym really helped. For the record, I am in excellent shape. I exercise daily. My diet is impeccable. The problem IS long. stretches. of. just. sitting.

After much dithering, I bought one of those wheeled adjustable over-bed tables for about 50$. I also bought a cheap stationary bike (about 140$). So I can bike when writing, stand when writing, dance around if I'm working on something that only requires half a brain.

It really DOES make a difference. I write faster and better. I am so much happier and relaxed at the end of the day.

...To paraphrase Samantha in a Sex and the City episode, I'm riding mine right now...

Click to expand...

Alternative to the QWERTY dance mat: The pedal-powered computer.

The key is to move. Move as much as you can whether you write sitting or standing. Take frequent breaks and move.

I was a teacher for an eon or two. I was told (on my first day of teaching) not to sit at my desk, but to interact with the students constantly. (It was a theory my first principal had - he also thought we'd have less disciplinary problems if we were on our feet.) So I taught on my feet; I walked around the room continually. I sometimes used a lectern to 'lean against' if I had to talk for a bit, but I was a moving-walking machine for 35 years. If I did sit at my desk, my students would ask if I were sick. Even during a test, a quiz, a film, whatever, I was up and around and around the room.

I retired in 2009 and gained ten pounds within a few months. (I've since taken it off.) But what a difference! Suddenly I was this sedentary person who sat most the day (writing, mostly.) Now I try to move around and if I'm writing, I take a break about every 30 minutes even if it's simply a brief stroll around my house. I walk and exercise with weights, too, because those ten pounds scared the hell out of me.

The key is to move. If you choose to stand and write, move around, rock on your heels, step from side to side and take a walking break now and then. If you write sitting down, get up now and then to get the circulation going, check your mailbox or walk around your yard. Just do something.

Moving is the key, imo.

I want one of the desks that goes from sitting to standing. They're so expensive my husband has said he'll just make me one with an Ikea hack of some kind. But until then, he's hacked my treadmill for me to have a desk on it so I can actually walk (just to keep moving, not really for any particular exercise) and write/work.

I wonder if there's a difference between writing longhand at a standing desk and using a keyboard. Writing longhand you'd lean on the desk and take some of the weight off your legs. But you couldn't do that using a keyboard.

It's something I'm interested in, as I have back issues and get very stiffened up if I sit for too long, especially in a - lets call it "less than optimal" chair. But standing in one place for too long hurts too, so I have to make sure to take frequent breaks to stretch and stroll about a bit.

And seriously, do some chair makers design their products to hurt people? The visitor chairs or the meeting room chairs we have in my office building seem to be designed to make sure meetings don't go on too long. I think some cafes and coffee shops have a similar goal, they don't want you to get so comfy you stay too long blocking a table.