You become more active by working in a standing position.
It feels good, is good for your health, and you can become more efficient!
Ask people who stand up and work, and you will hear from them that “it feels very good”.
That can be enough as a reason. In addition, by standing up, you can :
- Increase your productivity with 10% or more
- Double your calorie consumption
- Live longer
- Live healthier by decreasing the risk for e.g. cancer, diabetes type 2, and cardiovascular diseases with up to 50%
- Strenghten your body and improve your balance
- Keep back problems awa
It feels good
“It feels good to stand up when working”. That´s an answer you´ll get if you ask a few persons who are already doing it. You´ll feel this yourself if you try it. You can also read about the research that explains the benefits with standing up, as well as the risks with too much sitting. Or, simply stay with the insight that it feels very good, that it´s “good for the body”.
Increase your productivity with 10% or more
You increase your metabolism when you stand up. That provides more oxygen to the brain, and can contribute in making you more efficient. In an office trial, they measured 10% efficiency improvements. It is common to hear about even bigger changes (eg. “I get twice as much done”). It´s also common to hear about increased energy and better focus.
Read more:
http://readwrite.com/2013/09/26/standing-desks-productivity/
Double your calorie consumption
You can increase your calorie consumption with 2-3 times by standing up, compared to sitting down. If you do that a couple of hours per day, it can correspond to a difference of several kilos per year.
When sitting down, a common formula is that you burn 1kCal per hour and kilo body weight. From that you can assume a calorie consumption increase with 100kCal per hour, just from standing up. 1 kg corresponds to about 7000kCal, so if you stand up for example half the day, you can burn mores than 10kg extra in a year, just by changing work position! How big the difference is between sitting and standing depends on how passive you are when sitting and how active you are when standing. All in all, you can double your calorie consumption just by “standing actively”. And when standing, you often tend to be more prone to moving about. For instance, you may choose to run an errand, or instead of sending an e-mail or using the phone, you walk over to chat with your colleague.
Live longer
Standing up more often may reduce your chances of dying within three years, even if you are already physically active, a study of more than 200,000 people published in Archives of Internal Medicine today shows. The study found that adults who sat 11 or more hours per day had a 40% increased risk of dying in the next three years compared with those who sat for fewer than four hours a day. This was after taking into account their physical activity, weight and health status
Read more:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/si-suy032612.php
Live healthier
By standing more, you can significantly reduce the risk for different life style diseases, for example cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes type 2. Today there is a lot of research around this, so called “sitting disease”. Studies have shown that by less time spent sitting, the risk for cardiovascular disease can be halfened. The risk for cancer can be decreased with up to 50% (depending on type of cancer). Problems with diabetes type 2 can be more than halfened by limiting the amount of sitting. Studies have also indicated that reduced sitting can decrease problems related to mental unhealth, blod cluts, hip fracture, kidney disease, the lung function, and cholecystectomy.
One of the factors that makes standing work more healthy, is related to production of the enzyme “lipo protein lipas”, an enzyme that plays an important part in the metabolism. After you have been sitting for a while, the production of this enzyme almost stops, leading to a reduced uptake of fat in the muscles. Related to this, studies have shown lowered levels of the good cholesterol HDL. There is a clear relationship between low levels of lipoproteinlipase and different forms of “sitting diseases”.
When you stand up, you maintain the production of lipoprotein lipase, as a consequence of the muscles being activated.
Read more:
WebMD
ABCNews
NBCNews
NY Times
Health.com
Eurekalert
British Journal of Sports Medicine
Strenghten your body and improve your balance
Standing up requires that you are in balance. This is controlled both by the balance centres in your brain, the balance organ in your ear, and all the muscles that control for example your ancle, knee, hip, and abdomina and back muscles. When you stand up, you train all those small and big muscles, as well as the coordination between them, which is good for your balance.
Sitting also inactivates the major bottom muscle “gluteus maximus”. It is prolonged and exposed to static stretch all day, weakens it. If you sit a lot, your bottom can become bigger, but from another reason – it´s filled with fat,
Read more: Sitting makes the butt much bigger
Be free from back problems
When you sit and leaning forward you burden the spine/loin which is bad for your back. Given that the sitting has increased a lot, it might not be strange that the amount of back problems has also increased.
Read more: Sitting messes with your back
For more information regarding research on these subjects, please continue reading on the summaries below:
