After Three Months of Using a Standing Desk…

I had to use a standing desk while recovering from a back injury. It helped with pain but I felt awkward standing while working instead of sitting. I found myself wandering away from my desk more often. Alternatively when I sit at my computer all day I end up mindlessly surfing occasionally. I guess each way, sitting or standing, has it’s ups and downs and we humans find ways to get distracted and procrastinate either way.

Dude, I love this. I get so sick of sitting in front of a screen all day. Will definitely be giving this a go, at least as an experiment. Kind of worried about having the same issues as you, with avoiding the desk, but still worth a shot.

I work standing up all day long in front of a computer.

People have to understand a few thing before trying:

1)Acknowledge that you have years of training sitting down, maybe since you went to school. I have worked as children teacher so believe me, it is not a natural thing, kids can’t stay sit down for too long, but eventually (after years of training they get used to it. All your muscles and joints are prepared for sitting down for hours , you need to start developing muscles you have atrophied, and this takes some time (months or years).

2) Never try to go standing all day from scratch, start slowly. Buy a cheap (IKEA has several) barstool so you can sit from time to time when you feel like it. You will notice this “sitting” is different to sitting down, as you could be straight and comfortable at the same time.

3) Put your base(for keyboard) at a comfortable position and your computer at your eye level, so you don’t bend. This is so important. I have a computer desk with a file cabinet over it(IKEA again). It works like a charm as I’m two meters high and is extremely stable. If you are good with wood you can make it yourself,buying parts from IKEA(you could design it using standard wood boards and have them cut, drilled, whatever for you really fast and cheap) I’m certain in South Korea you could find somebody that could make it for you for cheap. What you have done screams “WARNING !!:THIS EXPENSIVE STUFF IS GOING TO FALL. At least buy something solid with straight corners and no cantilever, that act as levers.

4) I work barefoot over a carpet-rug. I do not understand why you need shoes at all. Maybe you need to focus when you are putting your weight and change your body posture( Read: “8 Steps to a pain free back”, by Esther Gokhale), and put more weight on your heel as we are designed for(shoes again has made some feet muscles to atrophy). Again this takes time.

I made a treadmill desk – about $10 worth of stuff (not including the treadmill). Easy.

http://www.kelvinism.com/blog/australia/build-treadmill-desk-985/

The right way is to be lying flat on your belly! That way you avoid the dangers of sitting.

I tried a standing desk briefly – but after three decades of sitting, I discovered that standing was a real workout for my leg muscles.  After two days I mostly went back to sitting, but as I have things set up so that I simply have to pivot my monitors around and then pass my keyboard through to the standing desk, I’ve left things open for easy switching.

I put playroom rubber padding on the floor and was fine barefoot, incidentally.  No shoes required.  My feet weren’t getting tired nearly as quickly as my front upper thighs, just above the knees.

My intuition is that it was great for my health, it made me much more able to alternate between computer work and non-computer work (e.g. work on the house I’m renovating), and I had the same experience, that I did less random surfing.  When I wanted to take a break, I left the desk instead of having that block against standing up that leads to surfing.

However, all those guys who say they tried a standing desk and just never went back – I figure they’re in their 20′s, not their 40′s.  I am definitely needing to build up to standing all the time.

I picked the Rhodes up for $40 at a flea market about three years ago and haven’t looked back  

Nice, Kelvin. I actually sold an old treadmill last summer and kind of wishing I hadn’t. So it goes. 

Agreed, Alex. Being able to switch between standing/reclining is a luxury! 

It’s worth it. If your setup sucks just a little less than mine did, you’ll probably find it useful. As a couple other commenter have said, try and figure out how you can alternate between standing, sitting, and reclining. Floating, too, if you have a magic carpet. 

I haven’t tried the pilates/yoga ball, but I feel like that would be way too low for me. The mesh back chair sounds good. The Aeron chair I think has a mesh back and bottom, and people who have them seem to dig them. 

For me, when my body works hard, my mind does as well. Like you, the physical discipline is what appealed to me, and after a couple days of chair jockeying, I’m ready to design a new standing/sitting setup. 

As an aside, I think Truman Capote wrote while laying down (and drinking martinis). 

That information about sitting down all day is rather worrying. I do find that if I’m in a rush and need to get a lot done, then sitting rather than standing makes me work much more efficiently and almost eliminates procrastination.

I’ve been looking into standing desks but have always been put off by the prices, so I will consider a low-tech solution like yours.

Oops, that was meant to read ‘Standing rather than sitting makes me more efficient’. Interesting point though; for certain work I have to be sitting down, for example when it comes to thoughtful, and/or introspective writing, but for run-of-the-mill tasks, standing is quite efficient.

For what tasks do you find the standing desk better? Is it the more mundane stuff?

Great tip about using your belly button as good indicator for the correct work surface height for standing.

And Jose’s points about the changes involved in standing to work after sitting for years are excellent. It takes time to get used to it.