Oct
15
2015
Is Standing the New Sitting?
The health dangers of sitting all day have been all the buzz lately. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here area few of the studies and articles). But is propping up your laptop on a footstool (what I’ve done) or paying for a standing workstation going to solve all of your problems and make you into an indestructible super human?
Uhhhh…no.
Uhhhh…no.
And what about people who drive for a living? There are about 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the U.S. Tough luck for them?
The real danger of a desk job is that it is too easy to go several hours without moving. So if you trade that in for an 8-12 hour shift of standing still, you haven’t made a whole lot of improvement. Now if you have the opportunity to take walking meetings, hand deliver something to another floor instead of email, sit some and stand some, then we’re talking about a healthier workplace.
Our friend Ron Porter at The Back School likes to joke that the best way to prevent pain and overuse injury for our desk workers was to put a diuretic in the water supply. Get up and walking every hour, even if it is just to the restroom, goes a lot farther than buying every new “ergonomic” keyboard, mouse, stapler, or phone that comes on the market.
Oh and for our drivers out there (see we didn’t forget you!), here’s an insightful and funny article from Katy Bowman, a biomechanist, to give you some ideas. But the biggest suggestion we have is to schedule regular breaks to get up and move, and then stick to them. Set a reminder on your computer or phone. Do five chair squats every hour on the hour or make a lap up and down the stairs. Get a smaller water bottle so you have to go re-fill it more often.
There are simple solutions that can go a long way towards preventing pain and injury. Don't just sit there, but don't stand in one spot either.So after you finish this article, stand up and get moving!
