It’s common knowledge that a lack of exercise or sitting for hours at an office desk can be detrimental for our health. A research study* led by the University of Leicester has discovered that sitting down for long periods of time increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease and even death.
It’s easier to reduce your risk than you might think. Whilst standing at your desk might sound like a strange concept, it’s an office set up which has been adopted in Scandinavia and has begun spreading across America. Office workers using the standing desk are having fewer complaints of backache and claim to be increasingly focused and alert.
A Brief History
Now used by companies such as Google and Facebook, standing desks are said to date back to the 1940s with the likes Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemingway having reported to prefer to stand whilst working.
Finally, over the last few years, the health benefits are being highlighted for us all with John Buckley from the department of clinical science and nutrition at the University of Chester stating that “if nothing else, standing up for three hours extra a day would burn 8Ib (3.6kg) of fat each year”.
How We Can Help
At Posture People we have a variety of height-adjustable desks and electric height adjustable desk which allow you to stand as you work, promoting the natural curve of our backs to the same extent as one of our ergonomic office chairs as written about in our previous blog discussing why standing desks might be right for you here.
Remember that it is important you wear appropriate footwear when standing for long periods of time and don’t forget that there will be times when you need to sit so we suggest keeping an ergonomic chair handy for when you need to lower your desk to give your legs a little rest. If you decide a standing desk is right for you or your company, we’d love to know how you get on.
Finally, as John Buckley says “it’s little changes in behavior…such as standing at your desk that can add to make quite big differences to your health.”
*Led by Dr Emma Wilmot from the Diabetes Research Group, the study included 794,577 participants combined from 18 separate studies and has been published in Diabetolgia – The journal of the European Association of the Study of Diabetes.
