By Lisa Lombardi
It’s funny calling standing desks a trend when, in fact, Thomas Jefferson used one back in the 1770s. But there’s no doubt that working on our feet is having another moment.
While tech companies from Apple to Google have been outfitting their offices with them for more than a decade, sit-stands didn’t really take off for home work zones until our post-2020, hybrid era. They fill our need to furnish our work-from-home space with a comfortable, flexible setup—while also satisfying that modern-day wish to work hard but maintain a healthy balance. “People are much more invested in where and how they’re working now,” says Irvington, N.J.-based interior designer Beth Diana Smith.
But snapping up an adjustable-height desk to try to stand more for wellness reasons comes with some tricky decisions. From finding one that’s comfortable for your height to figuring out the best ratio of standing to sitting, there’s a lot to weigh before getting with the sit-stand program, including whether it should double as your home gym. You can now pair a standing desk with a treadmill, as Victoria Beckham reportedly does, or swap out your chair for a bike desk chair…but is that wise? To find out, we talked with ergonomists, interior designers and healthy work experts. Ahead, tips to help you clarify your stance on it all.
That’s an easy one: “Everyone,” says Jack Dennerlein, professor of physical therapy, movement and rehabilitation sciences at Northeastern University in Boston. “If you want to improve your well-being, having a sit-stand workstation allows you to change your posture and that just helps everybody.”
Many studies have looked into the health benefits of standing desks, and the big winners are your neck and back. “When you feel a little stiff or achy, it lets you change things up,” Dennerlein says. Some studies have found the desks make a difference for easing lower back and shoulder and neck discomfort. In fact, a 2019 review of 53 studies published in Applied Ergonomics concluded sit-stand desks are successful at changing behavior—i.e. getting sitters to stand more—and relieving aches.
They may help your mental health too. Research has shown that when companies implement sit-stand desks, their staffers become a lot happier. “They’ve got more control over their work environment,” Dennerlein says, and that decision power can improve their well-being.
There’s also a social contagion factor that means you have the power to spur someone else to move more—even if you only see each other over Zoom. “I know when I’m in a meeting and I see someone standing, I’m like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to stand too,’” Dennerlein says.
No—that’s about the worst thing you could do. “We know standing all day is not good for you,” Dennerlein says. “People who stand for work have more back pain and often have higher rates of cardiovascular disease.”
You need to mix it up, and your body is the best judge of the right ratio for you. Some people can only stand for five or 10 minutes before they start to feel pain and have to sit, Dennerlein says, while others can comfortably stand for a couple of hours at a clip.
It’s not the standing part that is beneficial, but rather the movement, explains April Chambers, associate professor of health and human development at University of Pittsburgh. Unlike a traditional desk, a standing station nudges us off our chairs, changing our posture. Then once we’re up, we naturally shift around.
Think about Zoom calls: You can usually tell when someone’s at a standing desk because they’re moving around, Dennerlein points out. These micro and macro movements do more for the muscles and joints than you’d think. By changing your posture, the load on your joints changes and you get the blood flowing to other parts of the body, he notes. “That’s why going between sitting and standing is really helpful for you.”
Well, if you buy one hoping it’ll help you drop pounds, you might be disappointed. When standing desks first came out, some people thought of them as a weight loss tool, but that promise hasn’t held up in research, Chambers says. Turns out, doing a desk job on your feet isn’t much of a fat burner. As Dennerlein puts it, “The calories burned if you stand all day are equivalent to a slice of bread.”
There’s no one-size-fits-all, says Dennerlein. “What’s important when using a standing desk is paying attention to your body. What feels good? What doesn’t feel good?”
While the classic 90-90-90 ergonomics rule for sitting at a desk—where your knees, pelvis and elbows are all at 90-degree angles—is a good starting point, there’s actually a lot of deviation in how people like to work while standing, and that’s just fine. A study Dennerlein led that was published in the journal Human Factors compared how people arrange their sitting and standing setups and found most preferred the standing desk set slightly lower than elbow height. They also arranged their monitor lower than they did while sitting, with more upward tilt, and kept their mouse closer to the body while standing than while sitting.
The inspiration for the study came from his own realization that he was setting up his sit-stand desk differently when standing than when sitting, and it was giving him neck pain. He says to pay attention to those twinges and adjust accordingly because “people find comfort in different ways when they work at a computer.”
Your height is a crucial consideration because if the desk doesn’t fit you, it won’t be comfortable. If you’re shorter than average, you want to make sure your sit-stand goes low enough so you can sit comfortably. Atlanta-based writer Kate Rope, who is 5-foot-3, bought this Vari sit-stand desk strictly because of its adjustability. “I like the fact that it goes lower than a normal desk for my short self,” she says.
If you’re tall, you need one that adjusts high enough so you don’t have to stoop down—or put it up on bricks, as a 6-foot-6-inch friend of Dennerlein had to do. The specs generally spell out the desk height range in inches, along with which heights those work for, so read carefully before investing. These adjustable standing desks, including the two below, work for a wide range of heights.
On the plus side, these are active workstations that integrate actual gym equipment so they “do increase your energy expenditure more than the calories in a slice of bread,” Dennerlein says.
Still, there are downsides. One is the safety risk that comes from trying to accomplish two things at once. “You’re walking on the treadmill at your desk while working and you suddenly miss a step,” Dennerlein says. Ouch. On top of that, research has shown we’re less productive at them, particularly when doing fine motor work as opposed to, say, scanning email. The bottom line is it’s a nice to have, not a need to have. “If you can take a call while you go for a walk, that’s just as good as a treadmill would be,” Dennerlein says.
No doubt, with their metal legs and shades of gray, sit-stand desks can feel stark, says Smith, the designer. “You want to warm it up by considering what you put beneath it, behind it and on top of it,” she says. Start with your base: “Run an area rug fully under the desk. You’re looking for something a bit plush and colorful to distract the eye from those metal legs.” (Avoid high-pile rugs, though, or your chair wheels won’t move.)
Next, spruce up the surface with something that’s pleasing to the eye, like a plant—which may even help you feel better during your 9 to 5, according to Jenny Roe, a researcher and director of the Center for Design and Health at the University of Virginia. “A view of nature will restore mental fatigue and improve your mood,” Roe says. Snake plants are great-looking and low-maintenance. “I always recommend putting it in a patterned and brightly colored pot,” Smith adds. (Again, it’s your Zoom stage.)
Finally, think about what goes behind your adjustable desk, Smith advises, such as oversized art or “a really fun wallpaper.” She likes the 1980’s Office Wallpaper from Milton & King, or you can find inspiration from nature or Hollywood sets. With the boom in video calls, “there’s now a bigger push to make sure what’s behind you is quote-unquote pretty.”
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