Great, you finally decided to get a standing desk! Now you need to work on your standing desk ergonomic moves! You have probably heard by now that “Sitting is the new smoking.” A statement credited to James Levine MD, Ph.D. Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. Research has shown there is evidence to support this claim. Prolonged sitting and sedentary lifestyles have been linked to serious health problems such as Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.
How many times do you sit each day? And for how long?
You likely sit:
Don’t stress, it’s not just you. Researchers have estimated that US citizens spend more than half of their waking hours sitting down.
Aside from the serious health problems, there are also considerable movement health dysfunctions that may arise from all that sitting. The problem is that your body was designed to move, hunt, and gather, not sit! Prolonged sitting can stretch out and weaken our postural supporting muscles (muscles of the body that support the skeleton and maintain balance.), decrease circulation, and cause spasms in the low and upper back.
You can see from the chart that sitting, slumped sitting, and loaded sitting are amongst the highest percentage positions putting pressure on your discs compared to standing. We can also see that standing desk ergonomic posture matters as well. Forward flexed and loaded flexed postures in standing can also be problematic.
You have already made the choice to stand more, thanks to your new desk, so here are a few tips to keep your standing desk ergonomics sound while taking a break from sitting.
Aside from the serious health problems, there are also considerable movement health dysfunctions that may arise from all that sitting. The problem is that your body was designed to move, hunt, and gather, not sit! Prolonged sitting can stretch out and weaken our postural supporting muscles (muscles of the body that support the skeleton and maintain balance.), decrease circulation, and cause spasms in the lower and upper back.
You can see from the chart that sitting, slumped sitting, and loaded sitting are amongst the highest percentage positions putting pressure on your discs compared to standing. We can also see that standing desk ergonomic posture matters as well. Forward flexed and loaded flexed postures in standing can also be problematic.
You have already made the choice to stand more, thanks to your new desk, so here are a few tips to keep your standing desk ergonomics sound while taking a break from sitting.
Proper alignment of the ears, shoulders, hips, and ankles will allow you to work with gravity vs. fighting against it. Gravity only knows one direction, and that is down. If your head gets out in front of your trunk, your posture muscles will be working exponentially harder.
Attempting to maintain symmetry between each leg will help from overworking one side and shifting weight into your pelvis. You can take breaks by rocking from one side to the other frequently as well.
Locking your knees out while prolonged standing can lead to fainting hindering blood flow to the brain. It also transfers all the weight from the muscles in your legs to the joints, which could lead to unnecessary stress or injury.
Just as in sitting, it is important to change your standing position often to take pressure off your joints and involve alternate muscle groups. This will help prevent muscle ischemia and fatigue.
These simple exercises that can be performed while working will help circulate blood to the muscles throughout your body. It will also help prevent you from being in a static position for too long!
Remember posture is Fluid not Static. Your Next Posture is Your Best Posture!
Try this Standing Posture (Take a Break from Sitting!) Posture Wall Series
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