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A standing desk for $22

iamnotaprogrammer.com

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Re: A standing desk for $22

#111

Post by grannyg00se »

reedlaw wrote: post #100
olliesaunders wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think this is true. Pretty much the only proven thing you can do if you want to live longer is calorie restriction. Supposedly this is because the fewer calories you consume the less exposure your body has to free radicals that are important in aging. The corollary of this is that building muscle, which requires eating a lot, is inferior to being a skinny rake for longevity alone. Then, if you eat barely anyt…

I doubt that eating less and getting less exercise will really lead to longer life. It would be hard to measure such a thing, but my guess is that with less exercise and eating there would be a corresponding decline in happiness which alone could knock years off a person's life.

Calorie restriction is actually one of the fiew proven longevity tricks. In mice anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie_restriction

But I don't subscribe to the "live long an weak" mentality. I believe that your body is healthier and more capable when well nourished and physically strong. I'm 6'2" 190lbs and continually trying to gain muscle mass.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#112

Post by goodside »

AJ007 wrote: post #107
goodside wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are mountains of evidence that BMI correlates positively with the incidence of lower back pain. I have no history of LBP outside of the context of using a standing desk. Further, most of the purported benefit standing desks is to prolong lifespan, and there's even stronger evidence that low-BMI people live longer, so the suggestion that I should gain weight and sacrifice a clinically validated approach to livin…

I don't know all of the personal details here -- but, if your muscles are underdeveloped your at risk for RSI issues. I'm taking a guess, at that height and weight your muscles are underdeveloped. Since I switched to very basic body weight strength training nearly 2 years ago, problems I thought I would have until I died vanished. Nothing I ate or drank, no amount of aerobic exercises did anything to address those is…

I can do 50 push-ups. I'm not an athlete but I'm in shape enough to be healthy. I'm by no means "underdeveloped". I appreciate your concern -- thanks.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#113

Post by dereg »

goodside wrote: post #70
jcampbell1 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6'0" and 130 lbs is quite underweight. You have very little muscle and I am not surprised by the back pain. You need to gain about 25 pounds of muscle and then consider a standing desk. You need to hit the weights and fridge really hard for about 6-18 months.

There are mountains of evidence that BMI correlates positively with the incidence of lower back pain. I have no history of LBP outside of the context of using a standing desk. Further, most of the purported benefit standing desks is to prolong lifespan, and there's even stronger evidence that low-BMI people live longer, so the suggestion that I should gain weight and sacrifice a clinically validated approach to livin…

Why are you getting so defensive? I'm 6'1" and 150 pounds and I am way too skinny for my own good. These people here aren't hating on you, they're telling you the truth — you would benefit from gaining some muscle. Muscles support your skeleton, that shouldn't be a suprise. 50 pushups won't help you when you've got back pain. Eat a burger and do some deadlifts.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#114

Post by continuations »

dereg wrote: post #113
goodside wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are mountains of evidence that BMI correlates positively with the incidence of lower back pain. I have no history of LBP outside of the context of using a standing desk. Further, most of the purported benefit standing desks is to prolong lifespan, and there's even stronger evidence that low-BMI people live longer, so the suggestion that I should gain weight and sacrifice a clinically validated approach to livin…

Why are you getting so defensive? I'm 6'1" and 150 pounds and I am way too skinny for my own good. These people here aren't hating on you, they're telling you the truth — you would benefit from gaining some muscle. Muscles support your skeleton, that shouldn't be a suprise. 50 pushups won't help you when you've got back pain. Eat a burger and do some deadlifts.

6'1" and 150 lbs is not anywhere close to "way too skinny". It's well within the normal range of BMI. Sure you don't look like Schwarzenegger. But that's very different from being way too skinny.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#115

Post by dawson »

crikli wrote: post #106
bpbp-mango wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nobody I know is capable of standing for an entire workday. I used to work in a supermarket and would stand for nearly the entire day apart from a short tea break and lunch break. All the other employees would too. It's not uncommon.

Ditto. I bartended a decade ago and my shifts started at 4:00PM and didn't end until an hour after close at 2:00AM. We were on our fee the entire time, with only smoke breaks where we weren't allowed to sit down.

Why weren't you allowed to sit down during cigarette breaks?

Re: A standing desk for $22

#116

Post by continuations »

reedlaw wrote: post #100
olliesaunders wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think this is true. Pretty much the only proven thing you can do if you want to live longer is calorie restriction. Supposedly this is because the fewer calories you consume the less exposure your body has to free radicals that are important in aging. The corollary of this is that building muscle, which requires eating a lot, is inferior to being a skinny rake for longevity alone. Then, if you eat barely anyt…

I doubt that eating less and getting less exercise will really lead to longer life. It would be hard to measure such a thing, but my guess is that with less exercise and eating there would be a corresponding decline in happiness which alone could knock years off a person's life.

> I doubt that eating less and getting less exercise will really lead to longer life.

It does. Calorie Restriction is pretty much the only proven way to extend life and slow down the aging process.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#117

Post by kamaal »

bpbp-mango wrote: post #97
abossy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody I know is capable of standing for an entire workday. A drafting stool is absolutely required, and it's often the trickiest part of the configuration; for men taller than six feet, it's very difficult to find an inexpensive drafting stool that is sufficiently tall to match the height of your desk. [1] e.g., http://www.amazon.com/Boss-Drafting-Stool-Foot-Black/dp/B001...

> Nobody I know is capable of standing for an entire workday. I used to work in a supermarket and would stand for nearly the entire day apart from a short tea break and lunch break. All the other employees would too. It's not uncommon.

That sort of standing is different than the way programmers work.

In what you describe, people walk around and do some physical activity all the time. That's totally different than the way programmers work.

We practically stand motionless for hours, with only eyes and fingers moving. That sorting of standing is difficult to do for prolonged working hours. And might be more harmful than sitting for long working hours.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#118

Post by zerostar07 »

goodside wrote: post #67
sgaither wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're obviously not overweight but you're pretty light for that height, so I wonder if someone with a lower center of gravity would suffer fewer back issues? What if you used a laptop that you could move from standing desk to couch from time to time? Like after every 40 minutes?

I tried sitting down periodically. It just reinforced how much more comfortable it was to sit than to stand. I find it completely implausible that being thin would making extended standing harder. Flies in the face of everything I've ever read about back problems, which overwhelmingly afflict people with higher BMI. Also, I'm quite young, and have no history of back or muscle pains of any sort outside of what was bro…

It's not implausible. I used to be skinny like you, everything from getting up in the morning to getting out of the shower (cold) was worse. Standing was harder. For me standing a few hours a day is not about back pain, but for better posture and more energy.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#119

Post by zerostar07 »

gregschlom wrote: post #42
treblig wrote: post #36

There is a hilarious amount of Silicon Valley culture in the organization of this article. Particularly in pimping your biggest name early adopters. "Oh, someone from Stripe is using it! I'll bite!"

Hehehe, in this case, allow me to plug my own $0 standing desk blog post here - there's also a fair bit of SV culture in it. And pentalobular screws. http://gregschlom.com/post/4555981908/standing-desk

This looks over engineered to me plus the spinning chair will make it uncomfortable to type. May I suggest replacing it with a green biodegradable cardboard box. There are even models with books on top for adjustable height

Re: A standing desk for $22

#120

Post by mibbitier »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #65
goodside wrote: post #54

I used to be an advocate of the standing desk. I bought an adjustable-height Fredrik workstation from Ikea, tried multiple heights to find the most comfortable, and stuck with it for six months. It didn't work. Even after months of practice, I found it harder to concentrate while standing and doing it any longer than a few hours would invariably result in back pain. I found myself turning to "sitting tasks" like movi…

6'0" and 130 lbs is quite underweight. You have very little muscle and I am not surprised by the back pain. You need to gain about 25 pounds of muscle and then consider a standing desk. You need to hit the weights and fridge really hard for about 6-18 months.

Or he could just.... sit down and work.

Personally, I find working on a sofa with a laptop to be ideal.

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