It began the morning I woke up with an incredibly stiff neck. For more then two weeks, I could barely turn my head to the left, until the knot of muscle around my spine finally released its grip with a sudden, audible ‘pop’. I decided right then that I needed to change something in my life. In my mid-30s, 25lbs or so over my ideal weight, I realized I had come to an inflection point — carry on the way I was going, and end up progressively slower, stiffer, heavier, and less healthy forever more — or try to do something about it, stop the rot before it was too late. I already exercised reasonably often (although less than I should), and my diet was pretty ok, insofar as a modern Western diet goes. So I decided to stand up.
More than 800,000 Americans die every year due to heart disease or stroke. An estimated one in three adults has some form of cardiovascular disease, leading to a plethora of disabilities and expensive medical care. The primary causes of cardiovascular disease are usually listed as a calorie-intensive diet high in saturated fats and cholesterol, lack of exercise, smoking, and abnormal sugar levels in the blood due to diabetes (which is itself primarily caused by poor diet and lack of exercise). The total cost of treating cardiovascular disease in the USA is estimated at around $450 Billion per year — almost 1/6th of the total spent on healthcare overall — and much of this comes from public funding, due to the high concentration of cardiovascular illness among the elderly (Medicare) and low income communities (Medicaid). Heart disease is not just a public health concern — it is a serious drain on public finances, and pulls scarce funding away other areas, leaving less money available for research and treatment of cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other debilitating diseases.
Doctors recommend eating healthily and getting a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise a day to prevent cardiovascular disease. Public health advocates campaign for better preventative services for at-risk populations, and an end to “Food Deserts”; areas where it is impossible to buy fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Success in these areas would go a long way to preventing cardiovascular disease — but is it enough? Are there other factors at work that are significantly contributing to the high levels of heart disease and stroke in America?
Two weeks in, and my lower back hurts all the time. I tried not to significantly change any other aspects of my life, so I could get a clear idea of what specific difference, if any, that using a standing desk would have on my health (yay science!). So far, I’m constantly hungry, I have a dull, aching tightness in the small of my back that won’t go away, my knees hurt, and my feet are killing me.
My first standing desk is a crude effort, constructed by simply putting an Ikea coffee table on top of my old desk and screwing a matching shelf onto the front at elbow height. $115 in parts and about 30 mins to put it all together.
My office has since seen a parade of looky-loos consisting of everyone from the janitor to the senior executives, who have been continually dropping by to stare quizzically at my new desk (more specifically, at me standing in front of it, trying to actually get stuff done while they gawk at me like a zoo animal). They stare at the desk, and back again at me, as if they were looking at some kind of alien spaceship that has just landed. “So you stand up all day long??”, they ask incredulously. It is clear that, to many of my colleagues, the idea of standing up to work belongs in another era, or another society, but certainly not in 21st Century America with our comfy chairs, multiscreens, and endless cupholders. The only exception is the janitor, who seems genuinely confused as to why someone would actually choose to be on their feet all day, when everyone else above his pay grade gets a nice comfy chair to sit in. Standing desks might already be de rigeur in parts of the tech world, but here in corporate America, I am clearly marking myself out as some kind of freak.
I really want to sit down, even for just 15 minutes. Preferably in some kind of lounge chair that I could pretty much lay down on, taking all of the strain off my back. For some reason, my shoulders feel unnaturally tight, as if I had been moving heavy boxes all the day before and hadn't yet shaken off the stiffness. I want to take off my shoes so badly. Maybe I can sneak lunch in the locker room, where I could at least sit on a bench for a few minutes and eat a sandwich without being noticed — especially if I can avoid the lunchtime rush when all the hourly employees take their 12-1 pm break religiously.
Picture a stereotype of the American Sedentary Lifestyle, and more likely than not, you’ll imagine an overweight family, sitting on a couch watching TV. It’s a common image from public health campaigns, the media, and advocates/salesmen for healthier lifestyles. We seem to have an ingrained concern about how much time people spend sitting on their family couch of an evening — but what of the 50-60 hours per week the average American worker spends sitting on a chair at their job?
The scientific literature is full of studies that generally agree about the pervasive and negative physiological effects of sitting for long periods of time: women who sit for more than 6 hours a day have a 40% higher chance of death from any cause than those who do not, regardless of their overall activity level. In large population studies, long periods of sitting have been associated with increased risks for several types of terminal diseases, including cancers. Even getting regular exercise, as recommended by doctors, does not undo the damage caused by sitting on your ass all day long.
The human body evolved to move. A lot. Our natural posture is standing upright — we have long limbs and efficient cardiovascular systems that allow us to travel long distances on foot, and at some speed relative to many other creatures. We have giant blood vessels to provide blood to the powerful muscles in our legs; the femoral artery is so large that, if severed, a patient will bleed out and die within a couple of minutes without immediate medical help. To return all this blood to the heart and lungs, there are equally great veins, buried deep under the leg muscles. As you stand, move around, walk, or run, your leg muscles squeeze these veins, pushing all the used, oxygen-depleted blood up toward your heart for a round-trip to the lungs for oxygen reloading. When you sit down for long periods of time, your leg muscles relax, and blood begins to pool in these deep veins. This is why your legs still feel heavy and swollen after sitting at a desk all day, and it can lead to deep vein thrombosis, or even to pulmonary embolism or stroke.
Sitting down all day even has an effect on our bodies at the cellular level. Studies of fat cells (which, unsurprisingly, store fat for the body) show that when they are subjected to prolonged increases in pressure — such as sitting on them — they produce more triglycerides, and at an increased rate. In essence, simply sitting on your ass makes it produce and accumulate more of the fats that are associated with heart disease and stroke.
I am never sitting down again. Not at a work desk anyway. It has been just over two months since I started using the standing desk, and I literally feel years younger. I sleep better. I no longer have a constant pain in my upper back from crouching over the computer screen. I have lost 12 lbs — I have to admit, I cheated on the scientific study of how this would work — after the first month of using the desk, I started jogging more often and for longer, because I wanted to. It no longer felt like a chore to work out. I feel stronger, not just in my legs, but all through the core of my body. I feel like I have had a whole new gear added that allows me to put down more power when running uphill, or sprint after a soccer ball. I feel taller, and my posture is noticeably straighter than before. I look, and I feel more confident.
People still drop by my office, but increasingly more often out of genuine interest than sideshow curiosity. A small number of people seem to come by every week or so, just to see how it is going, or to ask how I built it, or how they should approach their supervisor to try one out. I’ve had long discussions about compromise desk ideas — an adjustable sit/stand design, or a lean-to chair with a high desk. Some of the executive leadership still drops in for a snide remark and a chuckle at the weird person, but others have shown a genuine interest in the idea, and allowed me to mildly proselytize to them about how much it has improved my everyday life.
I am more productive now. My attention span has increased, and I’m able to mentally organize projects much better than before. I am more focused. I find that the ability to physically step back for a second, take a breath, and then launch right back into work, allows me to plow through difficult and complex tasks much faster and more accurately than before.
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