What in the Dickens are you talking about? Sitting down to work is just the norm, the unspoken norm type of norm, but as you may know, just because it’s the norm does not mean it’s the best.
Enter the standing workstation! A modern day revelation for reconnecting to what our bodies are designed to do, stand.
You may be thinking, ugh? Woman you are nuts, the reason it’s the norm is because it’s the most comfortable for those long 8 hour workdays. We’ve adapted to sitting, don’t you get it you primal hippie dippy wierdo! However, if that was truly the case, then don’t you agree that we wouldn’t have such statistics as we do for chronic back pain and the like? We would feel more energized from sitting than we do from standing and moving around, which I would say for most people isn’t the case. Regardless of how much you exercise outside of the work environment, sitting for long stretches still has ill effects. But so does standing you may counter. Your right, static standing isn’t a perfect solution and can be difficult to jump right into. It is still better than static sitting which correlates often to bad posture and potential for other ailments. The more mini breaks you can take to move around whether standing or sitting for long stretches, the more aligned you’ll be with how our ancestors were living life. Constantly on the move, walking, jumping, squatting, lunging, striding, stretching. Yep that should be our goal too, since we really aren’t very far removed from those hunter gatherer ancestors. Can’t hurt to give it a try, who knows you may even start a movement at your workplace.
Just for fun, I urge you to take this quiz from the Katy says website, she’s a hilarious, inspiring, body alignment specialist with a great perspective about how we can incrementally get a little more active every single day. Because remember people, baby steps. We’ll get there when we get there, giant leaps are typically not the best so start with small bouts of standing, gradually lengthening the time you stand vs. sit. It all counts towards attaining you personal optimal health. Get this, you can even get a super nifty Treaddesk a compact and non-cumbersome treadmill that goes right under your stand up workstation. Even walking 1 mile/ hour is 7 miles in a full workday, just think of the possibilities.
Here’s my list of stand up workstation benefits
- Improved overall body alignment when standing correctly.
- More energy throughout the day
- Less risk of negative metabolic and cardiovascular effects source
- A possible decreased likelihood of getting 15 types of cancers linked to sedentary lifestyle. source
- Less risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, breast and colon cancer and obesity source
- Standing gives you a good chance to run on the spot, or do a few lunges, or shake it all about you know natural movements that feel good
- More productivity, yes standing has been linked to more productive work source
- You can practice good posture and ease joint pain and everyday discomfort
- You can inspire others to take control of their health and change the “norm”
The broader perspective is that even if we work at a desk, in an office or from home, we have choices. We can take back the original health that made our hunter-gatherer ancestors thrive by incrementing modern solutions like these. In this gals opinion, pretty nifty.
