Live data from Hacker News

A standing desk for $22

iamnotaprogrammer.com

61–70 of 184 posts

Re: A standing desk for $22

#61
post #49

The article he cites on the dangers of prolonged sitting is about research on prolonged sitting. That is indeed bad for you. However, so is prolonged standing. You are best off, and you can save $22, by keeping your normal desk and GETTING UP every 20 minutes or so and moving around. This avoids the problems with prolonged sitting, without incurring the serious risks of prolonged standing. See: http://ergo.human.corn…

Getting up to move around every 20 minutes will quickly turn a 5-person office into a mess. Now imagine a space shared by 50 or 100 people. This is completely unrealistic.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#62
post #56
post #49

The article he cites on the dangers of prolonged sitting is about research on prolonged sitting. That is indeed bad for you. However, so is prolonged standing. You are best off, and you can save $22, by keeping your normal desk and GETTING UP every 20 minutes or so and moving around. This avoids the problems with prolonged sitting, without incurring the serious risks of prolonged standing. See: http://ergo.human.corn…

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...

Or puff + laptop.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#63
post #58

Is standing long hours really healthier than sitting? (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_complications_of_stan... ) Personally, I feel both sitting and standing for long hours are uncomfortable and prefer walking. But a walking desk is hard to find for $22. I was able to build one for $80 using a used treadmill from Craigslist, free pallet boards made into a keyboard stand, and an old bookshelf to support th…

What about a horse-mounted desk?

Re: A standing desk for $22

#64

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…

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?

Re: A standing desk for $22

#65

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.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#66
post #58

Is standing long hours really healthier than sitting? (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_complications_of_stan... ) Personally, I feel both sitting and standing for long hours are uncomfortable and prefer walking. But a walking desk is hard to find for $22. I was able to build one for $80 using a used treadmill from Craigslist, free pallet boards made into a keyboard stand, and an old bookshelf to support th…

What about a horse-mounted desk?

I've been waiting for a stairmaster, myself.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#67

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…

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 brought on by the standing desk experiment.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#68
post #58

Is standing long hours really healthier than sitting? (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_complications_of_stan... ) Personally, I feel both sitting and standing for long hours are uncomfortable and prefer walking. But a walking desk is hard to find for $22. I was able to build one for $80 using a used treadmill from Craigslist, free pallet boards made into a keyboard stand, and an old bookshelf to support th…

What about a horse-mounted desk?

i've seen this recommended as an alternative before, is this close enough?

http://www.amazon.com/Clinical-Health-Services-Inc-Saddle/dp...

Re: A standing desk for $22

#69

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…

IMO (and for me at least), switching between sitting and standing is the key - I picked up a drafting chair from Staples just for that purpose. So now I do about 75%/25% standing/sitting, and switch positions pretty frequently.

Agreed. I do about 50%/50%. It's improved my posture tremendously.

Re: A standing desk for $22

#70

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.

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 living longer in favor of something as novel as a standing desk is just absurd.
Post reply on HN