Sitting desk v. standing desk

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

It is being reckoned by many in the field of the human body that sitting at our desks for hours on end is bad for us and that standing at a desk, in fact, is the best way to work as it gives you, amongst others, the option to shift your weight, to stretch and move about somewhat while still working.

Maybe that is one of the reasons that the offices of very old days, and especially the lawyer's chambers, had only pulpit style desks where work was done standing.

In the offices of Dickens' times the scribes would stand writing in their ledgers and other documents and it would appear that not even the boss would sit behind a desk. Then again in some places it would seem that tables were used where chairs would have been required upon which to sit.

Presently I have begun experimenting with this having constructed a standing desk pedestal of sorts to sit upon the desk that I was preciously using. Reasons being that I have found that after a prolonged session writing I am as stiff as a board when getting out of the chair.

It does take getting used to, a little bit at least, and the height of the desk surface, the elevated one, is also rather important in order to make it easy enough for you to work there without fatigue.

I made my standing desk “pedestal” from an old fiberboard piece that once was used as a cake board at the big house during a wedding and which I kept for the “just in case it may come in handy” for about 12 years now and, well, it just came in very handy indeed. As “legs” I added two old drawers from an old desk that has been dismantled some years back and – voila – one standing desk.

I do have the suspicion, though, that the height is not really the ideal one and rather than waist height it should, probably, have been somewhat higher. However, it does seem to work and we will see how well it works – or not – with some more use.

Therefore, we shall be revisiting my standing desk at a later stage.

The theory, as said, is that using a standing desk is better for your body and your health and some scientists have begun attributing many of the diseases of our times with the fact that we sit at home, sit on the way to work, sit at out desks at work and then repeat that ad infinitum.

Some workplaces, I have heard, have been taken notice and have begun to encourage people to use standing desks and it is claimed that people perform better this way too. I shall see how things are going with me as to using the standing desk for my writing work with the Ubuntu Linux PC, my workhorse.

© 2011