The Science Behind the Need to Stand - Results of Take-a-Stand Project (opens in new tab)

7 or 8 people got one of these things at my office. and it was a pretty random assignment (for the record, i wasnt one of them and probably wouldnt have taken it had i been offered). basically there were a few free ones that were offered to 8 people (that didnt either ask or not ask for them). but all accepted. after 1 year, none of the original people that got them still have them. it took a week for some, a few months for others to give it up but in the end, everyone did. for some, it was more a function of the "ricketyness" of the ergotron device. since the whole set up (keyboard, mouse included) has to be able to move up and down its not very fixed to anything. so it wiggles and shakes as you type or click. and its bulky, takes up space on your desk, forces you to put the monitor at the very edge of the desk, killing any room on your desk for anything else you dont want to reach around a monitor and giant bar to get to. for all who used it, any benefit of being able to stand up didnt outweigh these costs. before i saw this ridiculous "study" i disliked the product. now seeing the "study", i dislike the company. unfortunate.

I was already pretty sold on the concept, but the infographic definitely pushed me to make it more of a priority at my workplace. However, this site seems to be ultimately trying to promote the Ergotron store, yet it took me way too long to find the tiny Products link at the top.

If you're gonna sell something, sell something. :P

No description of their methodology. I can surmise some of it from their results, and things that trigger alarms in my head:

- All of the metrics are subjective judgements from the participants of how they feel, and I can only assume the people knew they were participating in this study because it's hard to hide the fact that you're asked to stand several times a day. So, placebo effect.

- No listing of the questions themselves - were they leading?

- No data on how many people started the study and how many were around at the end.

Standing instead of sitting may be beneficial, but I don't think this study, as presented, actually supports that conclusion.

I'm now at around two months of experimenting with a standing desk made of 2x4's and pine boards.

Despite using a ~28" high stool to vary my foot and leg positions for stretches and rest, I find that my flexibility has significantly worsened in specific ways. I do the 'old man groan' when I need to hoist a foot up to pull on a sock or tie my shoe. I've never done that before. Tension in my lower back is much higher. My forward bend flexibility is much worse than when I sat in a chair, despite regular stretching.

My neck feels better (an ongoing issue for a few years), but I have muscle pain in the left side of my upper back. It's due to some combination of holding my shoulders back and my arms up, something I never thought would present a problem. (I left-hand mouse, by the way, which is likely exacerbating the issue)

I'm a reasonably fit person who visits the gym every other day for about 1.5 hours (30 mins cycling, 1 hr of weight training). In the past, I've been an avid rock climber, cyclist, and yogi, so I'm fairly well in tune with my body's flexibility and strength.

Next steps:

1) Play with monitor height even more. I think it's crucial to elevate your monitor, but my Dell monitor's stand is still keeping it a little too high. I haven't yet determined the right height to achieve a neutral neck position.

2) Build a better chair. I suspect that support of the elbows and forearms may be important for shoulder health when it comes to day-in, day-out human-computer interfacing. I will take a mold of my back and build a chair back from it, providing lumbar, spine, and elbow support, with nothing to encourage my shoulders to rotate forward (a persistent problem with every chair I've had).