To Sit, Or To Stand?

There has been a recent movement involving the introduction of standing desks into traditionally sedentary work environments such as offices. In fact, you may have heard of a new, popular saying that “sitting is the new smoking.” This standing desk trend is gaining popularity based on medical studies correlating obesity, heart disease, and other physical ailments to sedentary lifestyles. As the aforementioned saying suggests, some of these studies have found that sitting for eight hours a day at a desk is physically more harmful for a person over the course of their life than smoking.

There have also been recent studies suggesting that standing at a desk compared to sitting is negligibly beneficial, if at all. So it appears that the jury is, arguably, still out on this issue. At this time, the best advice may be for a person to do what feels best and most beneficial for them.

Additional medical research on this issue appears inevitable.  Likewise, litigation may also be inevitable. Maybe a potential workers’ compensation claim will arise from an employer’s alleged refusal to provide employees standing desks. Perhaps a consumer will suffer an injury while using a standing desk that could have arguably been avoided by sitting. Only time will tell. In the meantime, enjoy this chair-related clip from “Seinfeld.” (This clip doesn’t really address the concerns discussed above, but we really like “Seinfeld,” and we like to incorporate it herein wherever possible).