Standing desk! Just another funky trend, or, given our shifting sedentary lifestyle, should we integrate this seemingly simple and natural practice into our world?

Well, let’s test it.

I’ve set up my office and home desk at the appropriate height, and, to be fair, I’ll give it six weeks.

I figure between home &amp; work, I’ll log close to 7 hours a day in this upright, but stationary position. At 200+ hours, that should be enough to assess proposed benefits.

Enter 4 cardboard boxes from Coles and I’m right to go.

So why should I consider standing in the first place?

Well, firstly, statistics suggest there’d be half your office logging close to 15 hours a day in the seated position. So between Mon-Fri that’s 62% of life spent sitting (or slumped....or slouched). Take out sleeping (say 8 hours) and we creep up to 93% of waking life with a body rusted at right angles.

The possible/ likely effect of all this sitting?

Tight Achilles tendons
Tight hamstrings
Weak glutes (bum muscles)
Rotated pelvis
Weak Abdominal control
Weak lower back/ weak upper back
Closed chest
Unbalanced head leading to neck strains

Now, armed with these imbalances, now go for a walk, jog, or run. Hmmmmm no longer feel like a thoroughbred!!

So will standing alleviate functional aging?

Well, that’s what is reported – along with an increase in metabolism, increase in collective strength, improved neural firing (balance) and tightening up your butt!

I guess it certainly makes sense. Particularly for those who exercise little. And while it would offer little in terms of cardiovascular benefits, this slight increase in incidental exercise should promote muscle tone and therefore improved skeletal balance.

So what happened to all those coloured swiss balls?

Research suggested that a world class ballerina (armed with serious core control) could sit correctly (balanced on a swiss ball) for about 50 minutes before muscular fatigue caused breakdown of balanced posture. Athletes could hold spinal balance for around 30mins, an average office worker recorded around 8 minutes, while politician’s recorded around the 3minute mark.

So what seemed like a great idea slowly faded to limiting swiss balls to kids play centres and IKEA promotions.

6 weeks later and here’s my thoughts on standing work stations.

Hang on a sec, I’ll just set my chair up correctly – ahhh that’s better!

Right then, we probably all agree living idle will likely lead to premature decline of our functional physicality. Meaning, you look and feel 60 at 40!
If you don’t use it, you lose it!

As for me and my standing experience, well, while I suspect my metabolism may have been slightly higher, functionally, I didn’t feel the standing option was a benefit. In fact, just standing around, void of significant movement, in my opinion could well be as taxing as the swiss ball effect.

While I’d like to think my trunk strength and activation is better than most, still, gravity is gravity. Eventually gravity wins out over structural strength.

NOTE - I did trial an anti-gravity gel mat for a period of time. It promoted subtle micro-movement – eg benefiting an increased blood flow &amp; neural activation.

Basically, if I stood - or sat - beyond 60 minutes I felt uncomfortable.

While, if I moved every 15 mins – for example; walked down the hall walkway, a quick stretch, pressed my hips forward, squeezed my glutes, abs etc – whether from a standing or seated position, I felt great.

So the conclusion is in two key points.

1) Moving regularly is the key – whether standing or sitting in a somewhat sedentary fixed position.
2) If you do choose to sit, as I do, get yourself a chair (not ball) that encourages you sit correctly.
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A short 30 second change in shape every 15 minutes worked for me.

BP