Transitioning Between Sitting and Standing at Work

The “standing while working at your workstation” revolution has begun as innovative companies including Yahoo, Google, Facebook and Twitter are implementing standing desks in their offices.  As this trend continues to evolve, some workers find frustration with having to stand for eight hours.  It is indicated by research that the optimal time to stand at work is for four hours.  In order to combat this innovative companies have created adjustable table legs workstations that are able to adjust back-and-forth between sitting and standing workstations.  In doing so, workers can break up their day for a few hours by standing in between sitting.  While this helps create activity and stimulates motion amongst workers, the real impact is seen in our health records.

It is well documented that Americans are more health-conscious these days as health issues including obesity, heart disease and more have become much more visible in our everyday lifestyle.  Some of the methods of curbing these common diseases are to limit the amount of sitting at our workstations and at work as a whole.  As innocent as these measures seem, consider the fact that the average American worker sits between 35 to 45 hours per week at work.  This is dangerous as this can easily lead to obesity through a rise in sugar retention and failing to burn appropriate calories, and other health related issues.  Taking the hassle out of creating stand-alone desks includes creating innovative desks that include both sitting and standing versions.  These new versions eliminate the concern that workers have regarding standing all day at work.

From a health and exercise basis, we produce more energy as we translate from the sitting to standing position several times throughout the day.  In doing so, there are issues that can be taken that include sitting for some time and then standing for some time.  This back-and-forth motion over and over has been proven to result in more calories burned and more sugars burned within the body during the average work day.  These two components play major roles in our health.

While these health-related concerns are at the forefront of consumers’ minds, we must continue to discover methods unique and uncommon to curb the challenging health concerns that exist in today's workplace.  Some of these important initiatives certainly do include the transition behind sitting and standing at one’s workstation, as well as establishing an active lifestyle and healthy eating habits.