New Study Reveals Standing Desks Are Doing You More Harm Than Good

When it comes to standing desks, most people either stan hard or hardly stand: those who have one at work seem to work hardest at proselytising everyone else in the office to get one.

If you’ve been stuck in this conversation before, we have good ammo for next time: a new study suggests that standing desks might actually be increasing body pain and slow down our productivity.

The Curtin University study oversaw 20 adults who used a standing desk for two hours, examining any changes in comfort levels and cognitive ability. They found that while “creative problem solving” improved, overall discomfort increased (duh) and attention and reaction times “deteriorated.”

The study, published in the journal Ergonomics, ends with the general advice that “the observed changes suggest replacing office work sitting with standing should be done with caution.

Which isn’t exactly surprising, if you think about it for about two seconds. Of course, moderation is the ideal – sitting itself is not the problem, but rather the lack of shifting positions between people.

While sitting down eight hours a day has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, depression and cancer, it’s clear that standing instead will just provide its own allay of health concerns.

“Standing desks aren’t the silver bullet, they’re not the solution to everything, however they can be part of the solution for many people,”  David Hall, occupational health chair at the Australian Physiotherapy Association, told news.com.au.

“The challenge in any workplace is to try and allow people to have a natural flow between sitting, standing and moving. What we know is you shouldn’t sit for longer than 30 minutes at a time, but similarly different types of issues start to kick in after standing for a long period.”

I’m ending the article here because I should get up and move a little. You can read the full report here, if you don’t want to join me.

Source: News.com.au 

Image credit: The Office/NBC

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