Sit at your desk all day? This may be for you.

This blog post is written by Kathy Shillue, Clinical Services Manager, Outpatient Rehabilitation Services at BIDMC.

I switched to a stand up workstation because the day-long sitting was making my neck hurt and my hip stiff. I'm a physical therapist and I’ve been recommending sit to stand workstations for years, mainly for ergonomic reasons. When I began to have neck pain and hip stiffness from sitting, my first thought was to sit less and stand more. I foraged around in our hospital closets and found some unused shelves, stacked them up to create an elevated platform for my computer, and I've been standing ever since.  And just like that—no more stiff joints. And the pain in my neck—that’s gone too.

It turns out that standing is not only better for me ergonomically; it also will help me cut my risk of cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Prolonged sitting of even two hours has shown to increase disease risk and longer periods increases the risk exponentially. Even if I get the recommended amounts of exercise every week, or go over and above recommended levels of exercise, the prolonged sitting still puts me at a higher risk than people who don’t sit. So in addition to my regular exercise, I should be doing more non-exercise activity during the day—like walk around and stand up. 

I’m not sure I would go so far as to try a treadmill desk. There isn’t enough data to give very specific advice and certainly not enough to recommend constant walking. If you don’t want to stand all day, the good news is that even as little as two minutes of activity every 20 minutes has beneficial effects on glucose levels, insulin sensitivity, waist circumference and triglycerides. So, getting up more often and walking around is a step in the right direction. But, you know what else I found? I actually have been doing more walking since I began to stand at my desk, without every really thinking about it. I have been tracking my steps for at least a year and noticed I do more walking now. I’ve found that I naturally step away from the desk more often than I did when I was sitting, and I guess it’s a lot easier to get up and walk if you’re already up.