If you are thinking of buying a standing desk and a chair, then here is something for you to consider before buying one. It’s not for everyone, and this is an actual person who has been using one.
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I can attest to most of the complaints about standing desks presented in this article. Foot pain and wanting to sit the main ones. I’ve had a standing desk for about ten months now and I’ve learned a bit about how to make it work along the way.
First of all you need padding, padding, and more padding. That’s four weight room mats stacked on top of an autoshop mat. Your feet will not like you for about two months. If you don’t have good posture I don’t recommend a standing desk. You can do more longterm harm to your back, spine, etc, than you’ll end up doing good to your overall health. Standing around all day isn’t a new thing by any means. If you know any people that have to stand all day for their job (ticket agents, waiters[I get that they are usually moving constantly], any kind of attendant that doesn’t get a chair, etc). Standing still for eight hours a day will make your legs very mad. Flex them, stretch, bend your knees every so often (every ten minutes or so), shuffle your feet, and so on.
Second, getting the working area of your desk right is a long term tweaking process(unless you manage to do it right the first time, in which case good on ya). This setup represents about ten months of major/minor tweaking. (yes I have a case of the paranoids thanks for asking) Mainly the tweaking went to the heights of the keyboard/mouse. Getting them on the level (or at a comfortable level) with your hands is very important for long term comfort. I also can’t recommend getting an ergonomic keyboard enough. Make sure you at least look up pictures of how to hold your hands to type with it. You should barely have to tilt your writs up at all when you rest them on the keyboard. I’m still not completely satisfied with the monitor positions, but I have to resnake all the cables to re-arrange that crap and I haven’t gotten fed up with it enough yet to do that. That second mouse in the background is a backup for when the wireless one’s batteries die(or it gets ganked by enterprising co-workers[it’s usually hidden]).
All that said, standing desks are definitely not for everyone. If you’re in constant pain and less productive, ditch it and look into other ergonomic setups/work plans (30 on 30 off might be worth looking into, throw in some moving around in the 30 off).
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