About eight months ago, Rob Howell was sitting at his desk reading an article about how the human body is not designed to spend all day sitting. That’s when Howell, managing director at Avison Young in Greenville, decided to stand up for a change.
“I thought I’d try it and see if I could tell the difference,” said Howell. He designed his own static L-shaped desk using PVC legs and a plywood top with sanded edges, which took a couple of hours and minimal financial investment to build.
Though it took some getting used to – “I was sore and more tired at first,” he said – he quickly started noticing benefits, including less soreness and tightness after exercising, a small amount of weight loss from extra calorie expenditure, and, most importantly, better energy and focus throughout the day.
Health benefits sought
The stand-up desk trend took off in 2011 when two studies were released on the dangers of excessive sitting. One, reported in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, examined 17,000 people over 13 years and found that those who sat the most had a 54 percent higher chance of dying of a heart attack. That was true even for non-smokers who exercised regularly.
Another study reported in New York Times Magazine in 2011 included 123,000 people and found that those who sit six or more hours per day had a death rate 20 percent higher than those who sit less. Women who sat more than six hours per day had a 40 percent higher death rate.
Dr. Christopher A. Smith, a physician with Medical Group of the Carolinas in Simpsonville, said he hasn’t seen studies that conclusively prove using a standing desk will improve heart health or increase longevity, but he does advocate them for people who have neck or shoulder problems from hunching over a desk all day.
His former office had static desks that required him to turn around to speak with patients, and he often went home with headaches or aching shoulder and neck muscles. His new office has desks that move up and down, allowing him to sit or stand. “I like options that give you flexibility,” he said. “Changing positions can be more comfortable. There may or may not be evidence that it improves health, but if people are willing to pay for it and it makes them feel healthy, by all means they should do it.”
As the research began reaching the public, more offices started offering the stand-up option, including Google and Facebook. Bloomberg Businessweek reported that one company, Steelcase, saw their stand-up desks selling four times faster than traditional desks. According to a Forbes article, Ergo Desktop, which makes an attachment that converts desks to standing versions, tripled its sales between 2011 and 2012.
Up and down
Locally, Tobin Wolverton, partner and vice president of sales at Carolina Business Interiors, has seen “a huge increase” in clients interested in stand-up desks for their workspaces. “And not just stand-up desks, but the ability to height-adjust a desk,” he said. “Ergonomically, you do not want to be in one position all day, sitting or standing, so the ability to adjust is very popular, more so than just standing.”
CBI sells a mechanism that can be added to existing desks, including traditional designs, that allow them to adjust up and down. There are a variety of ways to raise and lower the desks, including electric, pneumatic, crank and pin-set styles.
“There are even desks where they sit in one area and if they turn to the side, that portion is at standing height, so they don’t have to adjust,” Wolverton said.
That’s how Howell arranged his desk, which has a sitting area available if he needs it, or he’ll head to the conference room for seated meetings.
Adam Landrum, CEO at Merge, a Greenville digital strategy agency, started with a stand-up desk he fashioned himself back in 2008, but after seeing numerous benefits decided to purchase an electric Workrite stand-up desk.
He recommends trying it out for a while before making the investment. He started with a workbench purchased at Lowe’s stacked on books and bed-risers to achieve the proper height. He also purchased a bar stool so that while he stands most of the day, he can rest as needed.
His blog about the switch – “The Stand-Up Desk Experiment” (bit.ly/landrum-desk), once Google’s top result for “stand-up desks”– touts such benefits as better posture, more energy, clearer thinking and more engagement on phone calls. In the negative category, he did have sore feet in the beginning and some guests found the stand-up situation odd.
But six years after making the switch, Landrum is still standing, and Merge has four more employees using the desks. “I just need to be able to move around a lot and be active throughout the day,” he said. “I can’t even think of going back.”
