Health Benefits of Standing at your Desk

Posted by Madison Liquidators on September 5th, 2017

There are numerous health benefits when it comes from switching from a sitting position to a standing position at your desk. This is not to say that you should spend all day standing at your desk as that too can have negative consequences, but being able to switch from one position to the other as your body naturally wants too can be extremely beneficial.

Coming to you upfront, I’m not a doctor and I have done no scientific research on this subject however; I am able to provide you with first hand experience as someone who has spent many years working behind a desk and experienced the liberation that comes with being able to change positions throughout the course of a work day.

With that said, here are the health benefits I have personally experienced and I believe you too can also experience. First and foremost, muscle pain in my back, shoulders and neck have greatly reduced. The impact happened when I made the decision to make my workstation 100% ergonomic, and boy has it paid off. The ergonomic features I added to my space was firstly a height adjustable desk, this has several presets, two of which I use, one for sitting, the other for standing.

After setting these presets when I want to stand up, I just hit the number 1 on my desk and it rises to my standing height. When my legs start feeling a little tired, I give them a break and hit the number 2 on my desk which brings the desk back down to a sitting position. In doing so, I am allowing my muscles a little bit of movement and reducing swelling and inflammation.

The other ergonomic feature I added to my desk was a height adjustable articulating dual monitor mount. You might think, hey what about the chair? Yeah, I got a nice Steelcase Leap chair as well however installing the monitor mount should be the second change you make (maybe even first). If you ever find yourself looking down at your monitors, it is likely that you experience neck pain. Lift your monitors up with a monitor mount which will also help you save space on your desktop. I’ve seen people use phonebooks too, if you don’t have space issues on your desk, that will do just as well.

Moving on from the muscular benefit of being able to stand at your desk is metabolism. When you switch from a sitting to a standing position, foods and liquids will literally be able to flow through your body faster and actually allow you to lose weight. How much weight is entirely up in the air, as I said, I am not a doctor but my experience is that you’re going to take more frequent trips to the restroom working in a standing position than in a sitting position. It’s the same concept as how your metabolism slows when you are sleeping and laying in bed.

I hope this info is helpful to you as a first hand account of some of the health benefits to allowing yourself to stand on occasion throughout the course of a work day. If you are debating a desk riser or height adjustable desk my opinion is to say, go ahead, spoil yourself!