Working while standing

Is standing while working a healthier alternative to sitting?

Summary

No, the adoption of any static posture for a long period of time will be associated to a variety of phisical issues. In addition, walking while reading or staying focused will cause greater stress and strain in the upper body.

It's better to alternate or change your posture as you work:

• Pace around when talking or doing creative thinking
• Sit still when exherting considerable mental effort
• Stand around for a bit if the body is stiff from sitting

Recent trends

While standing desks have been used for different things throughout history, they have gained popularity once again, as a way to diminish the perjudicial effects of sedentary office life. Many hours in a sitting position can cause or facilitate a wide variety of muscular, postural and cardiovascular problems, so trying to reduce these negative effects on health is important.

A standing position relates to higher resting heart rate and muscular tone when compared to a sitting position, prevention of vascular obstruction, and avoids some postural problems that would otherwise appear.

However, standing in a relatively static posture for many hours can bring its share of different complications, and also shares some of the disadvantages of sitting all day.

Standing has it share of problems

Although the resting heart rate is higher, and the tension in the thigh and leg muscles helps to prevent obstructive and cardiac diseases, the greater strain in the vein valves of the lower body can lead to varicose veins, reducing venous return.

In addition, while greater muscle tone can also be beneficial to keep the muscles from losing mass and strength, sustained tension on the posterior chain of muscles can cause contractures, lower back pain, and other related issues. These issues will also be worsened in the presence of obesity or weakness in the postural muscles, even posing the risk of causing joint injuries in the long term.

Finally, even though standing prevents some postural problems related to sitting, it carries its own set of postural problems, so in that regard, postural problems relate more to the manner and the length in time in which each posture is maintained, rather than the posture in itself.

Walking at the desk is unnatural

Most of the issues mentioned are present because of how ill prepared the human body is to static positions, so another attempt at solving these problems are threadmill desks.

The human body can walk for tens of hours a day if in a moderately trained state, and walking helps prevent most—if not all—of the previously mentioned issues. The contraction and relaxation of muscles tonifies them, prevents contractures, and facilitates venous return in the lower body, protecting the veins, while the heart rate and higher energy expense help with preventing heart and weight issues.

Usually when walking, the head, neck, arms, and eyes move freely, constantly making small adjustments to their position. This is not the case when walking at a desk or performing work with a computer, where the view is often fixated in something specific, and arms are usually being used to perform said work. The greater effort exherted to keep these body segments static while moving, can cause a large amount of strain on the neck, upper back, and shoulders, and this can facilitate further issues like headaches and contractures.

When in a state of mental focus, stress will often cause the body to become more irritable, heightening its sensory response to pain, making it even easier for contractures to form.

Also, walking during work can be detrimental to focus. A usual subconscious response when trying to perform a complex task is to attempt sensory isolation (avoiding noise, looking down to avoid ocular stimuli, sitting still to prevent complex feedback from skin and deep receptors), which severely conflicts with active stances such as standing or walking.

Research can be misleading

The scarce amount of research on these options (because of their relative novelty) when compared to the overwhelming amount of information that has been gathered about sitting in the office throughout the years makes them look comparatively better, but that’s because these studies are being evaluated in isolation to all the information of the negative effects of standing for long periods of time in other work contexts.

How is standing up in an office for the entire duration of the shift (of which we have little information) any different from working in attention to public while standing up for the entire shift? (of which we have considerable amounts of information).

Throughout the early 20th century, legislators in several countries passed laws mandating workplaces to provide chairs for workers, in order to diminish the discomfort and observed health issues that standing during work would cause. Why would current humans be any different less than a century later?

Conclusion

Human bodies are capable of many different postures, and these are meant to serve different purposes. Even lying in a very comfortable bed for too long will cause injury and facilitate disease, because human bodies require dynamism and constant stimuli of many different types.

The only correct and healthy posture is one that isn't maintained for longer than it should.

Since there’s no simple or practical way to measure that, the most efficient behaviour is to change posture often, and adapt it in order to better serve the task being performed.

To conclude, a workplace that supports a variety of different postures will always be superior to a static alternative. This can be further optimized by appropiately choosing a posture according to the requirements of each task.

Practical Tips

• If sitting for a long amount of time is necessary, sitting on an exercise ball will bring greater dynamism, preventing back problems, strenghtening postural muscles and providing a viable alternative to standing.

• Pacing around while communicating or thinking about something that doesn’t require considerable focus requires no special utilities and provides significant benefits.

• Sitting on the floor or in a pillow, in postures like legs crossed, half lotus, or seiza will provide benefits like better flexibility, posture improvements, and stronger leg muscles since getting up demands a bigger effort from the leg muscles.