Use a Stand-Up Desk to Boost Your Health

By Tabitha Alterman
Published on November 7, 2014
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Several MOTHER EARTH NEWS editors enjoy the benefits of standing up on the job, using wooden stands to elevate computers on their traditional office desks.
Several MOTHER EARTH NEWS editors enjoy the benefits of standing up on the job, using wooden stands to elevate computers on their traditional office desks.
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This stand-up desk built by the author to use in her home includes wall-mounted adjustable shelves.
This stand-up desk built by the author to use in her home includes wall-mounted adjustable shelves.
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This mobile standing workstation is made from an audiovisual cart that’s outfitted with a keyboard tray.
This mobile standing workstation is made from an audiovisual cart that’s outfitted with a keyboard tray.

Many of us are far too inactive. We start our days seated for the morning commute, transition to sitting at the office all day long, plop down again to ride home, and then relax by sitting in front of the television. The afflictions of a sedentary lifestyle have been well-researched. What countermeasures might help? One is to work at a stand-up desk that can improve brain and heart function and lessen back pain — in short, offer better all-around health. And you don’t have to buy expensive commercial furniture: We’ve pulled together do-it-yourself solutions to the sitting desk problem in this article, and in “More DIY Stand-Up Desks.”

The Problem with Sitting

Considered from an evolutionary perspective, sitting all day is an unnatural state for Homo sapiens. “The workplace sitting desk is the antithesis of our native habitat,” says environmental journalist Richard Manning. “The human species derives much of its refinement, advantage and ability — especially its big brain — from the basic fact that we are upright, agile apes.”

In his recent book, Go Wild: Free Your Body and Mind From the Afflictions of Civilization, Manning makes a strong case for movement as the quickest path to brain and body health. A mountain of research points to inactivity as a contributing factor to our most chronic disorders, among them obesity, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, cancer and asthma. Our sedentary lifestyle has even been implicated in causing reduced brain function.

Much of what we know about the consequences of being sedentary comes from studies that have examined television viewing. Recent research has confirmed what the TV-watching studies show: We burn more calories when we don’t sit — to the tune of hundreds per day. Barry Braun, professor of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University, says a person would have to replace about four hours of sitting with standing to gain the benefits of a 30-minute walk. Nevertheless, there may be orthopedic and postural benefits to standing aside from the caloric expenditure. Engaging our muscles and increasing blood flow by standing up can result in better muscle tone; improved blood sugar, circulation and posture; reduced injuries resulting from tight muscles; elevated cognition; and enhanced mood. Just by standing, a body’s metabolism becomes remarkably more effective.

Setting Up a Standing Workstation

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