Pros and cons of standing desks

Pros and cons of standing desks

Pros & Cons of Standing Desks

Last Updated: Jan 27, 2020 @ 5:47 am

The recent headlines in the news said that ‘sitting is new smoking’ which terrified many folks in the workstations who had been sitting on chairs for years. Research has proved that sitting for a long time will increase many health issues. Further, a research said that people who are sitting for a long time are easily prone to type 2 diabetes disease.Standing desks are an effective solution to get rid of the back pain caused due to sitting at the workplace for an extended period of time.

All these terrifying phrases are making the employees at the workstations to change their positions as fast as they can and they now rely on the standing desks due to which the prices for the standing desks in demand have gone up. Performing workouts, jogging or exercises at morning and evening will not be the perfect solution, prolong time sitting while working will increases health risks of diabetes, obesity, heart diseases, cancer and even early death.Using a standing desk while working, writing or doing any action in standing position will reduce these health risks. You could adapt these standing desks based on the lifestyle and working style of the person.

Before buying a standing desk it is crucial to know more details about the standing desks in various aspects. Today let’s check out the benefits and drawbacks a standing desk can provide the humans. In this article, I have covered important optimistic and pessimistic features about the standing desks and here I leave it for your perusal.

PROS

Decrease of Obesity

Due to greater affinity to unhygienic junk food in the market, most folks become extremely fat and become obese. Such people cannot do normal gym workouts like any other normal guy. Even moving shall be very difficult. In order to reduce their huge body weight, they undergo a gastric bypass surgery. Remember, it is just to reduce the intake of your food and not to reduce your body weight.

 Now, it is the responsibility of such obese persons to do some workouts in spite of their incompetence. Such obese persons can use standing desks at the office, which keeps them on their legs throughout the day. This practice can increase their stamina and reduce their body fat as fast as possible.

Lower risk of heart diseases

Cardiovascular diseases are more common among people who are extremely obese as such people have a good amount of cholesterol in their body. Standing throughout the day needs a good flow of blood to the feet and due to prolonged standing blood flow in their body gets regulated which is essential in maintaining the proper blood pressure. Also, due to the intense burn of calories persons who stand for a long time pose less threat to heart diseases. A recent study in Britain said that drivers are more prone to cardiovascular diseases than conductors because they sit throughout the day.

Better metabolism

When a person sits for a long time, all the body systems which work together to keep him healthy gets slow down. Soon the secretion of enzymes and hormones gets mitigated and the food shall not get adequate digestive juices to break the food into energy. This reduced metabolic rate can affect the humans in many ways.

On the other hand, folks who stand throughout the day have all their inner body parts vertical to the ground thereby allowing the inner organs to work efficiently. This increases the metabolic rate of the body and keeps the body healthy for a long time by reducing poor blood circulation, arthritis, arterial blocks etc.

No back pain

Back pain is the most prevalent health issue faced by most of the persons who sit on a chair for a long time. The improper position and adjustment of the chair can cause swelling and inflammations in your spine thereby causing intense back pain. But such pains will not occur if they do the job by standing all day because the spine in their body straightens ups and gets rid of the pain. If they feel uneasy, then they can place their foot just above a small elevation by balancing their body with another foot.

Communication

Standing posture always has some advantages over the sitting posture in terms of communication. Clients who come to your desk may have different tones of voice. Some may have a loud voice, whereas some other persons would speak in a low tone. Since you are sitting in front of the computer screen you cannot get up every now and then to hear from your client. Repeated stand-ups can also make you annoyed. Instead, if you have a standing desk, communicating with the client shall be very easy and comfortable.

CONS

Joint pain

Prolonged standing throughout the day can make you tired and when you continue to stand for days eventually you will start aggravating joint issues and ligament pains. Pain in the abs, knees and the ankles are quite common when you stand. Most people ignore it at the initial stages and soon the pain evolves into chronic pain. After incurring excruciating pain, you will not be able to stand from then and also you have to follow medical prescriptions.

Decrease concentration

Any person who works in any firm needs intense concentration to do their job with ample satisfaction. If you are not going to sit throughout the day, then obviously your focus will start moving towards the pain in the leg. Soon you will start to lift up your leg every now and then which will be an extremely awkward pose in an ergonomic situation.

Unable to wear heels

Mostly women are handling, the help desk and reception desk in any firm all over the world. Most of these jobs require them to stand so as to be seen above the horizon of the desk. It is really sad to hear that most of the women who are engaged in such jobs cannot wear their favorite heel shoes.

I believe that you can understand the reason behind this aspect. Let me explain for people who don’t understand. Women who are heel enthusiasts should accept the bad truth that standing on a heel for a long time can cause issues like plantar fasciitis and bunions. Therefore, you have to renounce your favorite pair of heels and wear a soft and plane shoe that suits your ergonomic condition.

Talking over phone

 It is a universal truth that any person who works in an office always likes to do their job by sitting on their chair. When you get a phone call while you are busy with some calculations you have to apply enough stress on the chair to move the wheels of the chair and when you do this repeatedly you get tired easily. But, if you stand near the desk, you can easily handle a phone, very easily without any constraint.

Standing Desk – Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

  • Standing regularly will improve the metabolism of the body when compared the action during sitting.
  • Sitting all day can increase the weight whereas standing regularly will reduce the tummy and calories so that you can lose excess weight.
  • The major problem faced by most of the people who are sitting for an extended period of time is the back pain. Standing desks plays an important role and more effective in reducing your back pain. People who shifted to standing desk from any regular office chair has experienced better relief from back pain.
  • Many customer reviews from genuine and trustworthy sites state that using the standing desks will improve the attention and also helps in getting the strong focus towards your work. This will greatly impact the performance of the user as they can do their work with full concentration and focus.
  • The standing desk has the ability to reduce all the issues pointed above and also helps in reducing other problems that are caused due to prolonged sitting.

Disadvantages

  • Sore feet, mostly the people who shifted from a traditional chair to the standing desk has experienced this problem in the first couple of weeks. This is because your body needs time to adjust to new routine life.
  • Wearing shoes with the insoles while working on a standing desk is another problem, though it is helpful to avoid the foot pain, it also has side effect namely the increased foot sweat. Also, you cannot use your usual house slippers that make you comfortable. Don’t worry, there is a solution too! You can make use of any best standing desk mat for getting rid of this issue.
  • Another few sets of customer reviews state that standing desk with the laptop is not much comfortable as using the standing desk with desktops. This is because the space between the display and keyboard of the laptop is significantly smaller than the distance between eye and elbow of the user. Standing desks works great with desktops.
  • The last drawback is the varicose veins, standing too much will increase the chance to get these problems. This risk can be reduced by avoiding too much of standing or by neglecting the wrong standing posture.
  • People who have decided to use a standing desk should keep a fact in mind that you need to switch your working style often to sitting and standing to avoid the foot and leg strain, so consider about getting a height adjustable desk and a standing desk chair for enjoying the overall benefits.
  • You will have the natural movements of the body while using a standing desk and that would be a fine option, another choice for you is to buy a Treadmill Desk in case of avoiding traditional chairs. Conclusion

Conclusion

The standing desk has great benefits when compared to sitting all day but you know that every good thing has its own value or price.

Even though there are some disadvantages of using the standing desk, you will be able to overcome easily with the solution. The problems faced by standing desk are not so effective than the problems caused due to sitting all day.

Why still waiting? Grab the right Standing Desk and enjoy your work!

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