In This Article:
Buy A Standing Desk For Your Back Pain – Is This Good Advice?
In recent years standing desks have become very popular piece of office furniture. It seems that all the “cool kids” are using them.
As with any fancy new product, the claimed benefits are quite extravagant. They say that a standing desk can:
So let’s examine these claims…
Does A Standing Desk Really Help Back-Pain And Neck-Pain?
Sitting at a desk all day is bad… really bad. As the years go by, the sedentary working life really takes its toll on your health.
A sedentary lifestyle doesn’t just cause lower back and neck pain. Unfortunately modern working is involving increasingly long periods of sitting, between commuting to work and then sitting in the office.
So we think that getting a standing desk is not going to solve back pain on it’s own – but it’s a good start!
Movement Is Key
- Reducing Your Sitting
- Moving More Throughout The Day
These things will definitely help, so a standing desk on the whole may contribute to reducing lower back pain and neck pain but that’s only half the story.
Standing can never replace doing exercises for back and neck pain.
Exercises involving targeted movements, stretching and strengthening have been shown to be the best form of treatment for joint pain in general, and specifically for your back or neck.
Office Furniture
In recent years we have seen huge changes in the office environment, and lots of new products:
- Open Plan Offices
- Orthopaedic Chairs
- Standing Desks
- Inflatable Exercise Balls As Chairs
- Multiple Ergonomic Assessments
But at the end of the day pain and stiffness will always come down to the level of movement and the amount of stretching and strengthening exercises you are doing.
So don’t be fooled and take control of your pain and get the exercises done.
A Common Mistake With Standing Desks
You can work at a Standing Desk and still have bad posture! If you don’t set up your desk properly, you might end up straining your neck by looking down constantly at a screen that’s too low.
So the same ergonomics that apply to sitting at a desk also apply to a standing desk – ie. make sure the top of your screen is level with your eye height!
… so get yourself set up properly!
Can A Standing Desk Help You Lose Weight?
If you are using a stand up desk and you are standing and moving you are using more energy and burning calories than if you were sitting.
It takes more effort to stand rather than to sit so over the course of weeks or months those extra calories being used surely must count for something. But does it make you lose weight?
This most recent study on energy used and calories burned between sitting and standing found some interesting findings:
- Whilst sitting at work subjects burned 80 calories per hour
- While standing at work subjects burned 88 calories per hour
- While walking, subjects burned 210 calories per hour
So in other words there’s actually very little difference in calories burned between sitting at work or standing at work.
Using a stand up desk won’t make you lose the weight that you hoped for.
Interestingly 1 hour walk per day at lunchtime would be far more beneficial in the battle of weight loss.
Conclusion:
A Standing Desk can be beneficial but only if it helps you:
- Improve Your Posture
- Move More Throughout The Day
If you are recovering from back pain or neck pain, a structured program of Movement Exercises is more beneficial. Check out our Pain Kits that contain a 6 step program of Movement, Stretching and Strength Exercises…
