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Comment by feelandcoffee | Hacker News Reader

I hope this study don't revive the trend of standing desks again. Look I know being sedentary will rob me a few years of life, but going full opposite and being stand 9 to 5 it's Dante inferno at work. Probably the best balance will be having a routine with exercise present, and small breaks to stand and walk a little bit at X minutes sitting.

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It's almost as if it's lack of constant (even low-grade) activity that's the problem, rather than whether you're sitting or standing. Perhaps not moving all day is the cause.

Treadmill desk?

Potentially better than nothing! However, as a single repetitive motion, it might carry its own long-term risks.

Maybe one of those giant human mouse-wheel things with variable terrain? Tripping would suck, though.

Minority Report style interfaces that require big limb+head movements?

Heh, nice try, but you don't even need a big interface to see how that pans out.

You realize how sedentary you are when you have to use a huge multitouch monitor for... half hour. Your arms will be heavy from just pointing and clicking at the screen in front of you.

This situation is very sad and I'm also looking for alternatives.

Right now what I'm doing is just taking a 5 min break every hour at work and walk to some random part of the complex pretending I'm delivering something or running some errand, just to get me a lil walk and stand time. While they allow me to do that just fine, I know I am also hurting my productivity quite badly because you're never in that kind of flow state where hours pass like minutes.

I want:

- Good productivity. Good time alloted to 'flow' - Not fuck my health in the long term too badly.

Let's share ideas!

I think it's fine to have an occasional binge of any kind. So you once every couple weeks spend a day or two just sitting intensley focussed on something. What matters is your habits for most of the time, not literally all of it (in other words as long as ~80%+ of your days you do take regular breaks it's fine).

I bought an Aeron chair a few years ago and although it's fantastically comfortable I feel a downside is sometimes I don't move for several hours if I get engrossed in work. Once they are set up right I've not sat in any work chair which comes close.

As I said, I'm not sure that's a good thing because of the length of time I can sit. I do wiggle a bit but often don't even stand up. I was toying with getting a sand timer or something similar to enforce getting up but not sure how those interruptions would affect my workflow.

Yes, I agree. See my other comment that is a sibling to yours.

>It's almost as if it's lack of constant (even low-grade) activity that's the problem, rather than whether you're sitting or standing.

Yes, IMO. And I would add to that: it is likely that the lack of a change is also part of the problem, as in lack of change (at not-too-long intervals) between action and non-action (such as walking or moving for the former, and standing, sitting or lying down for the latter). Noticed it in myself - if I walk or move for too long (many hours), or stand or sit or lie down for too long (ditto, except for sleep), I start feeling uneasy or affected in some way (obvious way is to get tired due to the former, but also uneasy due to the latter).

Edited for typo.

Also, adding to above my points in this comment: about lying down for too long, in particular, I've noticed that if I do that, whether intentionally (not often, maybe sometimes due to getting engrossed in reading something interesting), or accidentally / unintentionally (say due to a fever), the body feels uncomfortable after a while, which seems to reinforce my point above about some change being good.

revive the trend? its still in full force so far as I can tell.

One of our offices just moved to a new building and got (small) motorized standing desks for everyone. I thought I would hate it, but honestly having the option is nice. Plus, its a lot easier to look at something with a coworker standing for some reason. Sadly I'm almost never in that office, I kind of wish I had it all the time.

> Plus, its a lot easier to look at something with a coworker standing for some reason.

So true. I think this is because legs are not in the other person‘s way vs sitting.

I like the option of just changing the chair height and/or the desk height every few hours and stay seated. That alone mixes up my posture quite a bit.

At home I have a desk I can take up and down. Some days I sit, some days I stand. I think that's the best

They're starting to phase in desks at my current job where you can save a few preset heights, and push a button to shift to one. It's pretty cool, though 90% of people with them only sit.

I place this (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90184047/) on my desk when I want a standing desk and remove it when I am ready to sit down :) . I like Ikea.

I place this https://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/80267566/ on my desk, you can put more things than your computer and lean on it, it holds well.

That's a good idea - the Marius table that I use is a bit precarious with its round top.

Standing desk plus an anti fatigue mat was mostly life changing for me. The amount of energy that I have at the end of the day is noticeably different but it does take some getting used to.

Different strokes for different folks though. I really miss it when I don’t have it.

Maybe we can figure out what we need to do, at a minimum, to alleviate the problem. 20 push-ups, 20 squats, etc every couple hours?

“But even slightly elevated troponin levels, lower than those involved in heart attacks, are worrisome if they persist”

If we can measure the right things, we can “treat it”

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HN-TIME:For those tracking, this story was posted 3 times in two days. 12pm EST on a Friday got over 50 upvotes in a hour. Lunchtime EST.

What's bad about the trend - don't offices typically give you a choice of which you'd prefer?

Previous workplaces I've been at had the option of an Ikea adjustable height desk for people who would occasionally switch between the two.

I've had one of those and it was okay, but I much prefer my home setup - a standing-height desk and a draft-height chair. Nothing needs to move to switch, and so I switch regularly throughout the day.

What a good idea! I have a powered sit/stand desk but tend to only stand during meetings, which luckily (well, unlucky in this context) aren't very often. Going to give a drafting chair a try.

I got a VersaDesk because of some pain issues I was having (which have since been resolved).

I would absolutely not want to be standing for 10 hours a day. But it is nice to be able to stand up for my usual 3-5 hours per day.

Something a bit more like this every morning at work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCfW6HFP5cI

I think the real solution here is diversity. I don't know that 9-5 standing was ever seriously advocated as a preferable alternative to sitting; clearly there are issues with that too.

I mix things up at work personally; about a third of the day standing, a third sitting in a chair, a third sitting on a yoga ball. At this point it seems like you should just hedge and try to about doing any single thing without moving for too long.

Personally I love standing desks. I find myself naturally walk around more often, especially when I'm in deep thought. This rarely happens when I'm sitting, as it feels much harder to get up. But it's good to have a sitting option too so you don't have to stand all day.

What's wrong with a trend in standing desks? Nobody is forcing you to use one.

There probably are some employers that mandate sending desks.

If there are, do they supply high quality shoes? Standing for so long in bad shoes might result in pain, too. I'm a bit of a pessimist in that regard so I could see an employer doing this to save money. A good office chair ranges from $600 to $2000 but you can also can go as high as you want.

it probably depends how many other job options their employees have.

They have adjustable sit-stand desks these days.

What do you mean by "Dante inferno"? Are you saying it's torture? I stand my entire work day and I'm not going back. But no one is forcing anyone to stand all the time.

Cardiovascular exercise is torture for me. But that has no bearing on the utility of it.

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