Benefits of Standing Desk – Why standing desk is a good idea for desk job employees?
If you’re an IT employee or an employee with desk job, spending your maximum time sitting all day staring at your computer, then you must be familiar with “sitting diseases” fear and concern. Trust me I spend 6-7 hours sitting all day writing and writing and the toll it takes on my health is too perturbing. However, to minimize the adverse effect of sitting on my health, I avoid sitting in one-go for a prolonged time, hence I keep taking gaps completing my other household errands in between, to reduce the exhaustion. Sitting diseases such as bad posture, backbone aches, spondylitis, protrude belly, risk of diabetes, heart diseases, blood pressure and obesity are some common concerns and complaints claimed by desk job employees in last 3 decades. Hence, in this new era of technology, to beat the disadvantages of prolonged sitting, standing desks have been quite popular in the market for it’s significant benefits and comfort.
Standing desk is also known as stand-up desk which is basically an adjustable desk that allows comfortable standing while working. It is a modern version of conventional desks, having adjustable levers to change the height of the desk according to your height and need between standing and sitting. These standing desks are also referred as sit-stand desks by manufacturers and sellers. These desks are great in terms of comfort and productivity. However, researches have been going on to manifest the significant benefits of standing desks. Here are some of the user advantages of standing desks over conventional ones:
1. Enhances and rectifies posture
Prolonged sitting affects your posture adversely. Your posture becomes lousy instead of straight and uptight, which creates tension in your spinal cord causing serious damage to the nerve endings and sometimes the damages can be fatal and permanent. Standing desks allows you to switch between your sitting and standing posture to reduce pressure on your posture by enhancing your posture.
2. Reduces risk of obesity
When you spend too much time in sitting, the first health concern should be weight gain and obesity. Your body devoid of physical activity loses the metabolism function gradually that ends up in fat storing and obesity. Sedentary lifestyles resulted in obesity in 60-85% of people globally, according to WHO. Switching to sit-stand desks can help you switch between your sitting and standing postures to reduce prolonged sitting position.
3. Minimizes backpain
The constant tingling pain in your back due to prolonged sitting can be real exhausting. One of the real benefits of standing desks is helping your back to constantly change the position, reducing the strain over it. When you feel little discomfort, you can adjust the height of your desk and stand-up to continue working and get back to sitting position when you’re tired standing.
4. Lowers blood sugar levels
According to a study, standing for 180 minutes just after having your meal reduces blood sugar levels by 43% as compared to sitting for the same amount of time after meal. Hence, you can reduce your sitting time period while working after lunch by switching to stand-up desk.
5. Improves mood and energy levels
Standing desks reduces stress levels and fatigue effectively while boosting mood and energy levels. 87% of standing desk users reported significant spike in energy and positive mood throughout the day. And on returning to their conventional desks, their energy and mood got back to same dullness.
Recommended: What Can Happen If You’re Sitting Too Much Everyday?
6. Increases productivity
Switching to standing position after prolonged sitting improves mood, energy levels and productivity significantly. Productivity is highly affected when your position hurts and creates tension in your body. Standing desks help in lowering physical stress and strain by keeping up your energy levels to boost productivity which is one of the best benefits of standing desks.
7. Reduces risk of heart diseases
According to the health experts, standing is beneficial for heart health. Prolonged sitting is equal to sedentary lifestyle which significantly increased the risk of heart diseases and heart strokes up to 147% which cannot be compensated by continuous 4 hours intense workout.
8. Reduces caffeine urge
Prolonged sitting increases coffee intake urge in regular or irregular intervals, due to afternoon nap crashes or fatigue. Hence, standing desks can be the ultimate solution to reduce your frequent urges of caffeine that has other harmful side effects if consumed regularly.
9. Enhances mental focus
Prolonged sitting and working idly can lower your concentration affecting cognitive skills. Too much lousy posture increases stress and exhaustion that hampers mental focus and productivity. Standing desks allows you to refresh your mood and boost your energy levels by boosting your mental focus while working.
10. Enhances utilization of muscle and joint movements
The musculoskeletal movement in human body needs consistent transition from sitting to standing that beat health repercussions associated with sedentary and inactive lifestyle. Hence, switching your conventional working desks to standing desks can be highly beneficial for your overall well being increasing your lifespan.
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Priyadarshini Muduli
A full time passionate writer with imperishable determination to bring healthy, smart and pragmatic changes individually and socially. Concentrate especially on lifestyle, life and personal improvement, relationships, mental health and behavior, viral issues and literature based subjects.
