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Comment by hfkfktnekfm | Hacker News Reader

Out with the standing desks, now that even the plebs have them (journalists for example)

Time for the kneeling/squatting desks. Now that's a conversation.

Any startups working on this already?

Adjustable tables would solve that problem. I have one and it’s brilliant, days when I’m feeling lazy I can sit at it but days when I need better focus I can press a button and it turns a motor on to raise the desk.

It doesn’t go low enough to squat though. I doubt many would.

An adjustable desk that goes low enough to kneel in front of it would be interesting.

It would be quite difficult mechanically however. In a normal adjustable desk you only go from 1x to 1.5x height, which is trivial. With a table you can use while kneeling you would need to go to 2x height to sit in front of it or to 3x height to use it standing, all while maintaining the stability we expect from a table.

Mine more than doubles in height and does so using a 3 part telescopic legs. Given how small some telescopic ladders can compress to and how low my desk already goes with just 3 parts, I’m reasonably confident it’s not that difficult of an engineering challenge to build a table that could compress lower than mine.

From 2015, inspired by Buckminster Fuller: DIY Octahedral standup (or squatting) desk: https://www.oopsmark.ca/blogs/oopsmark/26045188-diy-squattin...

I've toggled between squatting and cross-legged (half-lotus) sitting for about 4-5 years when I work from home. I think it helps really well to reduce tension or pain in the lower back. Squatting is not all that comfortable for typing, though.

It's also hard to concentrate in what you're doing while squatting.

Seems like the most important thing to do is spend less time at the office.

that octahedral is neat but if u use it, add sth to raise the monitor height!

I would say easily adjustable sitting/standing desks that are also on wheels is the future. I want to be able to rest my arms on the desk and pull it around with my within a few foot area so i don't need to stand statically all day because that's just as bad for you.

Doesn't sound that good for the back IMO, as someone who can squat indefinitely it's not that comfortable leaning forwards like I do on a desk. You end up hunching up even more, and your knees are just in the way of your arms.

Kneeling is pain though. I'd rather sit cross legged than kneel for any length of time. A cross legged desk would work, as well. It would just be about a foot high.

You could probably use a low Japanese table for this pretty well.

I think a combination of positions is probably best to get variety in muscles you're using. Reminds me of a theory I heard that hard-backed chairs are actually better because they make you fidget and readjust your body, versus using the soft chair as an external spine

IMHO the desk won't solve that, the computer should be redesigned. As a headset maybe?

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