2022 Start the Year Standing
It’s that time of year again. The time when we toss the holiday treats, get on our treadmills, hit the weights, and roll out the yoga mats.
With wellness-related new year’s resolutions on the top of our minds, now’s a great time to develop another healthy habit: using a standing desk.
As a longtime purveyor of adjustable height desks (since 2014!), we’ve written volumes on the topic of standing desk health benefits. So, if you’d like to know…
- Why standing desks are good for you
- How to properly adjust a standing desk for comfort
- How to use a standing desk correctly
- How to choose the right standing desk for you
…you’ve come to the right place.
Standing Desk Benefits, Tips, and Tricks
1. Are Standing Desk Good for You?
A long time has passed since Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic coined the phrase “sitting is the new smoking.”
An awful lot of reach has come out since then, and our knowledge of the “how” and “why” has evolved. But what hasn’t changed is our confidence that regular use of a standing desk can complement and enhance your other healthy habits, helping you stay pain-free while reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, etc.
Want to learn more? We recommend checking out our Standing Desk Health Benefits blog article as well as our Health Benefits page.
2. How to Properly Adjust a Standing Desk for Comfort
Ever rent a car, test ride a bicycle, or try a friend’s snowboard?
Even if it was a really nice car, bike, or snowboard, it probably felt very uncomfortable to sit in/ride/stand on if it wasn’t adjusted to fit you properly.
The same holds true with a standing desk. For pain and discomfort-free use, your keyboard, monitor, mousepad, and desktop need to be positioned correctly.
To learn how to adjust a desk for correct ergonomics, we recommend checking out our Stand Up Desk Guide to Better Posture or watching our Standing Desk Posture Video.
3. How to Use a Standing Desk Correctly
Simply ditching your chair will not magically give you athlete-level fitness. Instead, what we’ve discovered is that (like most things in life) variety and moderation are key to better health.
In other words, many experts agree that if you had to choose, standing is better than being stuck in a chair all day for most people. But for the absolute best results? Achieve a sensible mix of both sitting and standing, and switch often between the two.
Experts generally recommend - at least once every hour - switching from sitting to standing. Depending on your personal preferences, fitness level, and comfort, you might stand for just five minutes per hour, 30 minutes, or even more. But as long as you create healthy movement (and prevent yourself from sitting in a static position for extended periods), you’re doing your body good.
It’s also important to start small (e.g., five minutes per hour) and work your way up over time.
Learn more by reading our What’s the Ideal Sitting and Standing Ratio? blog article as well as our article on Transitioning to a Standing Desk.
4. How to Choose the right Standing Desk for you
While the choice to switch to a standing desk should be an easy one, what’s less clear is which desk is right for you? The answer depends on your workspace, budget, personal preferences, and what office furnishings you already own.
To get you started, we suggest trying our Workspace Matchmaker.
We hope you found these tips help you start the year standing!
