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Apparently standing desks can hurt too

blog.jasonsemko.com

11–20 of 65 posts

Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#11

Don't stand on your heels! You don't have to completely move over to digitigrade locomotion, but... standing flat footed for long periods of time seems like it could be painful. Keep a bit more weight on your forefoot. Your knees will thank you (more stability now comes from your ankle, which bends left/right much more effectively) and your calves/quads will do a lot more work. Of course, it is useful to note that if…

So, wear high-heels then?

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Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#14
This might be purely anecdotal as I don't know the exact causes for it off the top of my head, but I'd like to add sciatica to the list of possible conditions that may develop from standing too long. I know for me at least, I never had symptoms of it until I had a job that required lots of standing around. I would still walk around a fair bit and all that as well, but there were noticeably long periods of stationary standing too.

If you're not familiar with sciatica, it starts with a numbing of the right leg usually, and can develop into an all out debilitatingly painful burning sensation that can flare up at any relatively small stress on the legs. Well, I got that, and it's not fun. I had to get some orthotics to help mitigate the pain, but to this day I still get pretty bad flare ups if I do any kind of stationary standing that totals more than 20mins in a day without the orthotics; the numbness begins closer to the 10min mark though, so all out debility is easier to prevent. Walking for long periods of time is fine, it's just standing that's painful. And I stopped working at that standing job over 4 years ago now, with no other noticeable constant stressors going on since. So yeah, no standing desks for me unfortunately. Makes going to some concerts a pain on the ass too, which sucks, but that's another story.

Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#15
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.

Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#16
I realize this is about his home desk but .... If you have a standing desk at work and don't have a mat or a chair you are probably violating OSHA guidelines for work place safety. There are regulations on how long an employee can stand in one spot without mats or a stool to take breaks from standing.

Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#18
post #2

If you're standing, please do yourself a favor and get a standing mat. My ex runs a video store and spends ~8-12 hours per shift on her feet; until they bought and installed standing mats, she had terrible plantar fasciitis.

Check out MoonMats: http://www.themoonmat.com We bought a couple of them for a standing work area and they are great.

The product looks interesting. The text on the page makes me want to seek medical help for my eyes.

Re: Apparently standing desks can hurt too

#20

Don't stand on your heels! You don't have to completely move over to digitigrade locomotion, but... standing flat footed for long periods of time seems like it could be painful. Keep a bit more weight on your forefoot. Your knees will thank you (more stability now comes from your ankle, which bends left/right much more effectively) and your calves/quads will do a lot more work. Of course, it is useful to note that if…

This is also good advice for walking. Your shoes tend to encourage you to heel strike and trying to step with more weight on the balls of your feet will let you walk much much longer without fatigue (after your ankles get used to it).
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