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Apparently standing desks can hurt too

blog.jasonsemko.com

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Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#31

Post by aresant »

“Whatever you do, do it in moderation”

An old proverb that may be, but applies too as a simple system to avoid repetitive strain injuries.

Sit, stand, change positions.

Rotate to a different input device (mouse, tablet, trackball) each week.

Take your eyes off the monitor and stare out the window for 90 seconds every hour.

Walk to lunch once a week, or go to a bathroom on a different floor of the building.

Over reliance on any one part of your body will ALWAYS cause damage to soft tissues given enough time.

Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#32

Post by jaibot »

bct wrote: post #15
iharris wrote: post #6

I thought that it was obvious that if you stand for 8+ hours, you'll want to be wearing proper footwear and/or have a standing mat. Your entire body weight is borne by your feet - treat them nicely! Folks with weight problems or diabetes tend to have foot issues as well - exaggerated pronation/supination, plantar fasciitis, and swelling to name a few. There are solutions for nearly all of these problems and are highl…

Another option is a stool. Having the option to stand can make a big difference, even if you're sitting most of the time.

In my current setup, I stand between my desk and the wall. I can occasionally lean back against the wall to give myself a break. Between that and a gel mat, I feel pretty good.

Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#33

Post by pjnewton »

hhabgood wrote: post #26
pjnewton wrote: post #22

All human movement is a skill and anything you "do wrong" over and over again will eventually cause injury. I'd recommend you take a look at Dr. Kelly Starrett's book "Becoming A Supple Leopard" the title may seem silly but the information inside is life changing. Here is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Supple-Leopard-Preventing-Per... I can also help if needed, contact should be in my profile.

This guy is awesome, thanks for the book link!

No problem! Check out his blog as well: http://mobilitywod.com

Great resource!

Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#34

Post by paydro »

pjnewton wrote: post #22

All human movement is a skill and anything you "do wrong" over and over again will eventually cause injury. I'd recommend you take a look at Dr. Kelly Starrett's book "Becoming A Supple Leopard" the title may seem silly but the information inside is life changing. Here is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Supple-Leopard-Preventing-Per... I can also help if needed, contact should be in my profile.

Love Starrett!

He also did a talk at Google (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfg_e6YG37U) and near the end someone asks about stand up desks.

The problem the author has might not be due to the standing desk but more with his posture. The standing desk probably exacerbated the problem.

Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#35

Post by stcredzero »

I've achieved a sort of standing desk meta-nirvana: I have a setup which is almost optimal in 3 positions, with only a 1 second transition time between them, thanks to the Swopper stool. Either I'm standing, or standing/leaning against the stool, or sitting directly down on the stool. The only adjustment I do is to move my stool closer or farther by about 1.5' with my foot. When I'm leaning against the stool, I'm short enough (5'4") that when it's set at maximum height, it's perfectly serviceable as a work stool. But when I sit down on it, it compresses so that my arms are level with the desk, and my feet can rest comfortably on the base. Otherwise, I'm in a standing/near standing position using my laptop on a stand. Things are optimized well enough, I find myself shifting positions without thinking about it. (Actually, I work in 4 positions. My bed is nearby, and sometimes I lie down to think.)

Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#38

Post by mprovost »

geekam wrote: post #27

What was the comment about the weight gain? Does the author mean that one gains weight by standing a lot?

I think they meant that once you injure your foot, physical activity is so painful that you stop exercising or walking around and then you put on more weight which makes the injury worse.

Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#39

Post by mtgx »

I'm more interested in the sitting part. As more and more jobs turn into "services" types of jobs, where you just do work on a computer, how do we as a society solve this problem of everyone sitting 8h+ a day in a chair (and probably not even a very comfortable one)?

Maybe we'll get lucky and Glass type of computers will be useful and productive enough 10-15 years from now, that we can do most jobs with such a wearable computer.

Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#40

Post by tptacek »

As 'tzs has pointed out repeatedly on HN: it's possible, and, considering the evidence, perhaps even likely that standing desks are worse for you than conventional desks:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4307722

From what I've read, the best approach seems to be to sit, but also to set a timer to get up and walk around for a minute every half hour or so.

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