Tired from sitting down all day? A desk-based job can be exhausting, even though your little grey cells are doing mental gymnastics from dawn to dusk. Sitting at a desk all day means you are leading a sedentary lifestyle, which brings drawbacks and issues that a trip to the gym can’t undo.
While you might be tempted to take your career in a different direction and throw it all in for a more active job, there is another – more secure – way that you can make your desk-based job work better for your body.
Adjustable height desks enable you to sit or stand, depending on your task, and the positive impact that they can have on your health is remarkable.
More than a standing desk, a height-adjustable desk can seamlessly move from sitting to standing with a quick tap of a button. It means that you can change your position in seconds, sitting down to focus on a strategy or standing for your morning Zoom call.
5 ways an adjustable desk can benefit your work health
Boost your energy levels
If sitting down all day makes you tired, does standing up make you less tired? It would seem so. Studies link a sedentary role with an increase in anxiety and depression, whereas standing up will boost energy levels and moods.
Work harder, work smarter
Adjustable height desks were trialled by the NHS and the results were published in the British Medical Journal. The study found that those standing more often reported increased engagement with their work and a reduction in musculoskeletal problems. Over 12 months, participants in the study sat down for just over 1hour and 20 minutes less than they had done, but they felt the benefit.
Slim improvement
Standing will increase the calories that you use on a daily basis, making it easier to hit the right burn to intake rate. Getting this right means that you reduce your chances of gaining weight and could even see you lose weight over a period of time – just from standing. To stand for about three hours a day for a year could burn 30,000 calories or 8 pounds.
Tackle your back pain
Losing even a small amount of weight can also lead to a reduction in back pain, so it’s unsurprising that adjustable height desks have also been linked to improved back health. Currently, 8 out of 10 adults have experienced back pain in their daily life, due, in part, to the long hours that we spend hunched over desks and laptops.
Miss the mid-afternoon slump
It’s hard to get lunch right and you often only realise you’ve got it wrong when you’re struggling to focus in the afternoon and searching for a sweet treat to lift you. Lunch will increase blood sugar levels, which can lead to a post-lunch slump in the middle of the afternoon. Standing to work after lunch can even out blood sugar levels, stabilising your afternoon performance and helping to keep you clear of the biscuits.
