Heart disease and other related problems are generally incited, excluding external factors such as smoking and alcohol abuse, by obesity, poor blood circulation and a lack of exercise and basic movement.
When faced with a 5 day working week which invariably features little else than you, your workstation and your good old friend the coffee machine, you may feel that you are at risk of bumping into health hazards such as strokes or heart attacks, and due to the nature of your vocation, that of being sat down in an office all day, you feel almost hopeless to resist the threat. Of course, after work activities such as fitness clubs or other sporting pastimes can be used as a means of keeping fit but even so, when it is necessary for you to be in the office for 8 or more hours per working day, you can’t help but feel that these lengthy durations of sitting down are detrimental to your health and general well being.
The answer to all of your office woes can be found in the form of a Standing Desk. The desks which have been built so they stand at just below shoulder height, deem it necessary for the user to be stood at all times whilst using it.
Sound a bit daunting?
After so many months and years of denting your trusty swivel seat with your ever expanding buttocks, the transition from sitting all day to standing my come across as slightly unnerving. Well, contrary to what you may believe, converting from a sitting to a standing desk is a lot easier than you would’ve thought.
The move doesn’t have to be made in one monumental leap. Start by using your new Standing Desk for just a couple of hours each day – this alone, just standing for two hours per working day, has been proven to promote weight loss. Some 10 pounds a year can be lost just by substituting two hours of sitting for two hours of standing. So imagine then, when you have eventually got to grips with your Standing Desk and are able to stand at it all day – the physical as well as psychological benefits will see you dismantling your old swivel chair and dropping it in the trash.
A survey conducted over a 13 year period by Men’s Health which comprised of 17,000 men and women who worked in an office environment found that those who sat at their desks during the day were 54% more likely to suffer a heart attack than their standing counterparts. This makes an awful amount of sense when you consider the following.
- Standing burns up to a third more calories than sitting. So after you’ve feasted on a large lunch or indulged yourself with a cake or a cookie to complement your coffee break, you can rest assured that when you head back to your Standing Desk that you will slowly but surely burn off the recent calorific intake during the course of the afternoon. This is something that certainly wouldn’t be achievable with a conventional sitting desk. The fats and sugars would mount up day by day, month by month, year after year and eventually render you extremely overweight if not obese, and as we have mentioned before, obesity is synonymous with heart disease and heart attacks. Using a Standing Desk will keep you your lean and mean self or if you were previously a tad on the portly side, have you shed pounds before you could say Weight Watchers.
- Using a Standing Desk promotes improved circulation, whereas whilst you are slumped precariously at your sitting desk you will find that circulation all but stops as your body becomes numb due to a lack of any remarkable movement.
- Good circulation is absolutely imperative in terms of maintaining good physical health. Not only does it encourage more awareness and a better mood, both of which allow you to tackle your work tasks with more productivity and efficiency, but it also fights off the threat of blood clots which can eventually lead to heart disease or heart attacks. If you are working in an office situation then using a standing desk for at least a couple of hours a day (and gradually building up to more) is strongly recommended. With a Standing Desk you can battle the threat of any potential health problems and continue to work professionally.
- Standing Desks also reduce the risk of heart attacks and heart disease by alleviating any psychological problems you may have been experiencing. Stress is all too common in the office, what with deadlines having to be set and met. Of course if you are tackling these problems while sitting down, although your backside may be nestled comfortably in the furrows of the chair which had been thoroughly ploughed over the year, the stress you are or may be experiencing would be easier eradicated whilst using a Standing Desk. Increased blood flow and energy lead to increased productivity, creativity and efficiency, making you and your boss or subordinates happier in the workplace and thus creating a less stress free environment. Stress as we all know can lead to all manner of physical difficulties including heart attacks and strokes so don’t delay, throw out that chair today.