A standing desk is also called a stand-up desk. It is essentially a desk which allows you to stand comfortably while doing the work. Many new versions are adjustable that you can change the height of the desk and can alternate between standing and sitting. There are referred to as sit-stand desks or height adjustable desks. The standing desk has impressive health benefits and also increases productivity.
Using this type of desk can partially wipe out some of the harmful effects of sitting for much time. Below are some of the benefits of standing desks and standing desk health benefits.
Standing Desk Health Benefits
When you sit your body metabolism slows down and even stop producing the lipase the enzyme that breaks down the fat. Sitting for long periods of time reduces the body’s effectiveness in generating glucose levels, increasing the possibility of type 2 diabetes. There are many standing desk health benefits:
- Reduce the risk of obesity
- Reduces the risk of type2 diabetes
- Reduce the risk of cancer
- Reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease
- Reduces neck and back pain
- Boost productivity
- Lowers the long term mortality risk
- Burn up to 40% of calories per day
- Better posture and increases the core strength
- When you stand and move your body sends the endorphins to your brain which increases the creativity, innovation and even productivity.
- Standing desk users increase their heartbeat rate by 8 beats per minute, results in burning calories and weight loss.
Standing and Moving Advantages
- Improve posture
- Reduce the risk of injury
- Improve the coordination and awareness
- Helps you to stay more alert
- Improve your mood
- Heart: increases the blood flow, good fat, and overall heart rate.
- Spine: counteracts the pressure on discs and vertebrae from sitting
- Muscles: strengthens your back and abs, and also minimizes the muscle tightness
- Brain: send the blood and oxygen to the brain which increases the mental sharpness.
Other Benefits of Standing Desk
Sitting for a long period of time is seriously bad for health. People who sit a lot daily have a high risk of heart diseases, diabetes, and even early death. In addition to this, sitting for a long time burns very few calories and may result in weight gain and obesity. This is a major problem for workers in the office because they sit for most of the time. A standing desk is becoming popular nowadays which solves the problems that may occur while sitting. Here are some of the benefits of a standing desk:
- Standing reduces the risk of obesity and weight gain: Weight gain is caused by the intake of more calories than you burn. On the other hand, burning more calories than intake will result in weight loss. Almost 1000 extra calories are burned every week just by standing at your desk in the afternoon.
- With the help of a standing desk, there may be low blood sugar levels: Generally, the increase in blood sugar levels will be after the meals which are worse to your health. Standing for 180 minutes after the lunch will reduce the blood sugar spikes by 43% compared to sitting for the same time. One more thing is that alternating between standing and sitting for every 30 minutes throughout the day will reduce the blood sugar spikes by 11.1% on an average. Sitting after the meals is a harmful effect and great risk for type 2 diabetes.
- Standing may lower the risk of heart disease: Some of the studies found that conductors who stand for the whole day have the risk of heart disease-related death very less when compared to the drivers who sit for the whole day. Even an hour of intense exercise may not have any negative effects on an entire day spent on sitting. So there is no doubt that spending much time on your foot is very beneficial for heart problems.
- Standing desk reduces the back pain: Back pain is one of the common complaints from most of the people who sit for all day. But standing desk reduces this problem. Several studies have done on employees with long term back pain; many participants reported that there is up to 32% improvement in lower back pain after working for many weeks on standing desk. Another study by the CDC reported that use of sit-stand desk reduces neck pain and upper pain by 54% just after the 4 weeks.
- Standing desk helps to improve mood and also energy levels: In one study participants working on the standing desk reported less fatigue and stress than those people who seated for the entire day. Standing desk reported the increased energy and vigor whole the day. Sitting also results in an increased risk of both anxiety and depression.
- The standing desk even boosts productivity: Standing desk has no significant impact on typical work tasks. A study reported that using a standing desk for 4 hours every day has no impact on the characters typed per minute or typing errors. With the help of a standing desk, the mood and energy improve as well and more likely to boost productivity.
- Standing may help to live longer: In fact, the review of 18 studies reported that those who sit the most are at 49% great risk of dying earlier than those who sit for less time. Another study reported that reducing the sitting time for 3 hours daily would raise the average life expectancy by 2 years. From all these studies it is clear that standing often could help to lengthen the life span.
What is Standing Desk good for?
For the question of what is standing desk good for? here is the answer. It has many good things, advantages, and benefits.
- Standing increases muscle activity compared to sitting.
- Standing desk reduces the neck and back pain which is the most common problem in many employees who work for a long time by sitting.
- Burns more calories compared to sitting
- Reduces the strain on the lower back
- Standing desk at work lowers the blood sugar levels
- By standing at a standing desk for working reduces the heart diseases.
- A standing desk is good for people having chronic back pain
- Standing is good for people who feel stress and fatigue while working because it improves mood and energy levels.
Is it good for you?
One of the biggest health risks is that sitting down for a long period of time at an office desk or in some gaming chair. Some things like diabetes, depression, and heart diseases are linked with some inactive behavior. Basically sitting for a long time is bad for health. Now comes the standing desk which is yelling a lot by people in recent days but they not be as good you think.
The idea behind the standing desk is very simple. That is, sitting is bad for you, so do not do it. Standing usually burns more calories per hour compared to sitting. The problem here all the time is public health. People are not finding time for exercise in their lives so searching for some simple solution. Basically, researchers took some 2o people and made them stand in front desk for 2 hours working. They found that standing caused the people to be uncomfortable and painful. So long-standing results in more soreness. There was a mixed impact that some people improved their creativity a little bit and also slowed down to answer the questions when asked. In other words, the standing desk did not do well.
Some of these are issues are found in both sitting and standing regardless of how they are working. Standing for long periods causes swelling, muscle pain, joint pain where most of people want to avoid. It is very clear that the standing desk does not have any positive benefit based on the research and studies. We know that sitting is bad for people but the simple fix like the standing desk is also unlike to resolve the problem. The bottom line is that standing is not the complete solution to our sedentary worries. Maybe sit-stand desk is likely to solve the problems, walking paths, bicycle lanes are some of the things to do to solve the health issues. For more info, visit our Standing Desk reviews portal regularly.