When it comes to using a standing desk, it offers numerous benefits, both for your health and your ergonomic working postures. 

Historically we have become slaves to our office chairs and computers. Ever so slowly slouching and hunching over our keyboards as time goes by. But simply standing up, really is the ultimate solution to many of our common work ailments and is fast becoming the hottest work trend this century.

It’s called the Stand Up Revolution and you only have to take a quick scroll through the hundreds of posts with the hashtag #standingdesk to know that more and more people are jumping on this phenomenon. But is it all just a fad, something that will be remember in 10 years time similar to sham wow’s or the ab swing pro? Or are we on to something very powerful and beneficial to our working behaviours?

The Effects of Prolonged Sitting

When you sit for long periods of time, your body starts to experience changes. We experience some significant changes in important physiological processes such as the level of fats in our blood begin to rise causing an increase in our cholesterol levels. And let’s not forget our muscles. Our metabolic rate drops as we are no longer expending as much energy while we are seated. Muscles need to move regularly to promote circulation and to help regulate our blood glucose levels. By simply standing our body is able to combat many of these problems and diminish the total time we are spending in hazardous sedentary postures such as sitting.

Changing your work setup to incorporate a standing desk could well prolong your life expectancy. The accumulative effect of 30-40 years of working at a computer desk could easily be described as life threatening, particularly when you start to review some of the medical research on this topic. One study published in Annals of Internal Medicine showed that prolonged sitting was independently associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer and that was irrespective of if you exercised each day.  With data like this being published every month, it really does post the question - How is this issue not regulated by governments like smoking or alcohol? If we know this behaviour is so dangerous to our health, why is it considered so conventional?

These are many benefits of a standing desk, however there is one clear very clear and important one - Longer Life Expectancy.

If you want to live a longer, healthier and more able life, then you must embrace this new found health trend. Make the change and start standing up to work.