With most of us sitting behind a computer at our desks literally all day long, the risk of lifestyle diseases is on the rise. Yet now, there are ways to beat the sedentary working style in the office by standing and working. Here’s how a sit/stand desk can boost your wellbeing.

Sitting for too long slows blood flow so oxygen doesn’t get to muscles effectively; the body shuts down and goes into hibernation mode, according to a study from Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The average office worker sits for 10 hours a day with even those who go to the gym for a few hours every night still at risk.

Solutions

Working out isn’t a solution, it’s simply not enough explains Grace Van Beusekom, country manager, Middle East & North Africa at Humanscale. “The truth is our bodies are designed to move for the full 16 hours of the day. At one point in time we would have had to run, climb and fight just to eat. Humans were not originally designed to have their meals put in front of them on a plate. We were not designed to be sessile organisms and many injuries we are starting to see have come as a result of being more sedentary than we were designed to be,” she explains.

The simple act of standing up a few times a day and working while standing, increases the body’s metabolism just enough to bring it out of the potentially dangerous hibernation state. The minimum we should be doing is standing every hour for at least three minutes. In doing this, you reduce health risks and increase your productivity. The new age concept, of the sit/stand desk, has been picked up by progressive companies such as Google and LinkedIn and allows employees to have the choice to improve their overall health and performance. The new QuickStand Eco by Humanscale is a height-adjustable workstation which provides smooth, instant transitions between positions without interrupting workflow. Not just for standing, the

height can be adjusted easily to suit your particular posture and this flexibility enables increased productivity as well as decreases the associated aches and pains linked to being hunched over a traditional work station.