I have written before about how people seeking healthy lifestyle choices can be whipsawed by advice that can veer wildly, with things that are supposed to be good for you one day becoming demonized the next. This happens with diets as well as physical activity.
The latest reversal deals with ‘standing desks’, desks at which you must stand in order to work. These were meant to combat the supposed ill-effects of being seated all day at our desks, something that office workers are prone to do. I know several people who have them in their offices and even in their homes.
Now new research suggest that standing all day may also be bad for you.
They have been billed as the ultimate antidote to sitting in front of a screen all day at the office. But a study suggests standing desks, which have soared in popularity in recent years, do not compensate for being inactive and may even increase the risk of conditions such as swollen veins and blood clots in the legs.
Research involving more than 80,000 adults in the UK has also discovered that standing does not reduce the risk of diseases such as stroke and heart failure, despite the widely held belief that it does.
The study, led by the University of Sydney, found that being on your feet for more than two hours a day may increase the risk of developing problems such as deep vein thrombosis and varicose veins. The findings were published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
Dr Matthew Ahmadi, of the University of Sydney’s faculty of medicine and health, said people who sat or stood for long periods should schedule regular movement throughout the day.
“The key takeaway is that standing for too long will not offset an otherwise sedentary lifestyle and could be risky for some people in terms of circulatory health. We found that standing more does not improve cardiovascular health over the long-term and increases the risk of circulatory issues,” Ahmadi said.
If anything, this study reinforces the common-sense idea of the benefits of seeking variety and practicing moderation in all things. Whether it comes to food or physical activity, mixing it up rather than choosing one and going all in, seems to be the best option.
any cashier at walmart could have told the standing desk evangelists this info. my workplace has desks that can switch between standing and sitting, so that’s not a bad way to go. tho to make the most of this latest advice we’d best do aerobics while we answer phone calls, haha, ugh.
Now that makes me glad I did not waste money on a standing desk when I decided last year to upgrade my “office” here at home.
Since covid I’ve been working mostly from home and I think my back problems have gotten better. On my own I’m much more likely to get up and do some quick exercise now and then. Never felt comfortable doing sit ups in front of my coworkers 😉
My workplace has several stationary bikes that have a small desk attached. We used to have a small exercise room in the basement, but it had to be dismantled because it was not up to fire safety codes. Still, people sometimes book meeting rooms to exercise. I just take the stairs to the basement and back.
karl random @#1,
I have wondered why grocery stores checkout people are not provided with stools that they could sit on. I am sure that it was not out of concern for their health by being too sedentary. It could hardly be a cost issue since stools are so cheap.
So why make them stand during their shift?
Maybe the few extra seconds that it would take for them to get up to bag the groceries was considered an inefficiency.
Mixing it up is exactly right.
I’m sitting at a desk in my home office right now. Behind me is a standing desk. Under that, a small, easily stowed treadmill. I bounce between them all most of the day. Variation in all things, diet too.
Of course, not everyone is afforded the luxury of working from home.