I thought that it was obvious that if you stand for 8+ hours, you'll want to be wearing proper footwear and/or have a standing mat. Your entire body weight is borne by your feet - treat them nicely!
Folks with weight problems or diabetes tend to have foot issues as well - exaggerated pronation/supination, plantar fasciitis, and swelling to name a few. There are solutions for nearly all of these problems and are highly recommended for general use, not just for standing desks.
In my current setup, I stand between my desk and the wall. I can occasionally lean back against the wall to give myself a break. Between that and a gel mat, I feel pretty good.
Not just your feet, your knees, your hips and your back. I can't stand in the same place for more than 10 minutes before my knees and back start hurting. With a good chair, I can sit all day without problem.
For me one of the main benefits of an adjustable desk is exactly that I can move around, and if I think, I don't have to stand up to shift elsewhere, for example.
Don't stand on your heels! You don't have to completely move over to digitigrade locomotion, but... standing flat footed for long periods of time seems like it could be painful.
Keep a bit more weight on your forefoot. Your knees will thank you (more stability now comes from your ankle, which bends left/right much more effectively) and your calves/quads will do a lot more work.
Of course, it is useful to note that if you're used to locking your knees while standing, you're gonna have a bad time. Expect some soreness.
This is also good advice for walking. Your shoes tend to encourage you to heel strike and trying to step with more weight on the balls of your feet will let you walk much much longer without fatigue (after your ankles get used to it).
If you're standing, please do yourself a favor and get a standing mat. My ex runs a video store and spends ~8-12 hours per shift on her feet; until they bought and installed standing mats, she had terrible plantar fasciitis.
When I worked in machining, we all had anti-fatigue mats at our stations. Everyone wore Red Wing boots (sneakers are terrible for you), and I heard no complaints of foot pain.
Shoes are huge, yeah. You can go to a local restaurant supply store and get perfectly cromulent anti-fatigue mats, btw. People in kitchens have been struggling with this longer than us nerds.
Hi, I'm Casey Klebba from the article. Just adding a little flavor to the story:
I have worked in an Aeron chair for most of my career. The majority of my day is spent sitting down -- sometimes at my computer and sometimes in meetings. That's what my job is like right now. If you're like me, when you get home from work you go right back to the computer like a moth to a lamp. Advice about moderation is completely lost on me because I'm a glutton for computing -- that's just my reality. To mitigate the amount of time I sit during the day, I built a standing desk and spent my evening hours using it. It was great -- my posture improved and the contrast from sitting is something my body really enjoyed. I stood barefoot on a rolled up Yoga mat thinking that it would be a sufficient cushion. My weight is ~150 lbs and I would not consider myself unfit -- I walk several miles a day to and from work. Nonetheless my feet became increasingly sore. At first I thought nothing of it because I've often had sore feet from activity and it's never been chronic. Gradually the pain increased and became persistent through my day. By the time I realized I had become afflicted by Plantar fasciitis it was too late. I immediately abandoned the standing desk but recovery has still been extremely slow. The injury isn't massively painful but it can take _multiple_ years to heal in bad cases. Mostly the pain is a constant reminder that I am a moth.
Use my cautionary tale however you see fit, but remember that the lesson boils down to one real truth: there is no way to avoid the health hazards associated with excess computing.
You don't wear flip-flops a lot walking long distances, do you? The lack of heel-support is a huge contributing factor to over-pronation and probably Plantar Fasciitis. If you're not wearing flip-flops, are you walking several miles with proper support shoes for that distance if you have a flat foot? Something like the Asics Kinsei or Kayano series.
I'm a runner and regularly walk/run several miles to work too. I have no arch in my foot, but this was a couple years before I ever got a standing desk. I developed serious foot pain one summer wearing flip-flops everywhere.
I also have a standing desk I've had for 2 years now. It's a Geek Desk, and has a motor that allows it to raise from sitting to standing. First couple months I definitely had some new aches and pains, but they eventually went away. Two years later, I don't have any pains now. I don't stand all day though, I alternate between sitting and standing, and I take breaks about every 25 minutes.
I wonder about your posture on your makeshift standing desk. If the desk wasn't at the correct height it could also cause problems.
> You don't wear flip-flops a lot walking long distances, do you?
No, I wear clown shoes. Actually I walk in various Salomon shoes designed for distance trekking. As for the desk, it's built to my measurements and I did my research.
In short; I really just use the computer too much. I appreciate your analysis but the answer is that no amount of perfecting my daily routine will circumvent that truth.
As 'tzs has pointed out repeatedly on HN: it's possible, and, considering the evidence, perhaps even likely that standing desks are worse for you than conventional desks:
From what I've read, the best approach seems to be to sit, but also to set a timer to get up and walk around for a minute every half hour or so
FWIW, that's exactly what my doctor recommended when I went to see him about back pain. I asked "Um, I hear great things about standing desks?", he didn't even say whatever, he said, "I don't want you to use a standing desk."
That is my take on it as well. I figure that humans probably developed fatty buttocks for a reason.
I find that a good way to "set a timer" is to drink large amounts of water. It's good for you regardless and staying well hydrated should keep you from accidentally sitting still for many hours on end.
I hear people say all the time they drink a lot of water, but when you ask them to measure it out, it's a joke.
The answer to this problem is to sit at your desk with a gallon of water. You'll find you've finished at least 3/4 before the end of the day contrast to the 2-3 cups you'd usually drink.
Yeah, the difference between the amount of water I drink if I am not paying attention to it and the amount of water that I drink if I am actually making a point to drink water is fairly stunning; often up to 3 liters difference.
Agreed. If you don't have a lacrosse ball, a golf ball will also work. You can wrap it in elastic bands (those thick ones used to bunch broccoli up) to help reduce it sliding around.
The key is to really grind your heel into it - it should hurt. My PT says this is basically breaking up the scar tissue that is causing the symptoms.
I have gotten PF from running (stupidly did not give myself a break after setting some PBs) and this is the one treatment that's working. Best thing is that it can be done on your own time, while sitting at your desk, for example...
I realize this is about his home desk but .... If you have a standing desk at work and don't have a mat or a chair you are probably violating OSHA guidelines for work place safety. There are regulations on how long an employee can stand in one spot without mats or a stool to take breaks from standing.
We have treadmill desks at our office, I don't use it all day, but will hop on it for around 1 hour usually. I feel like that is a pretty good compromise.
I have the LifeSpan TR1200-DT5, and it's quite lovely.
I get on it in the early morning and mid-day when I'm a bit sleepy, for 3-4h/day total.
1/2 MPH (slow crawl) permits you to use the mouse reliably and keep your shoulders level so that no one knows you're on a walking treadmill during a conference call. This is way easier to do than just standing... I can do this for hours without pain or fatigue.
1-2 MPH (steady walk) permits you to do reading and typing without any problem. I usually go 1.5, and then only for a half hour at a time -- but then again, I'm kinda lazy.
3-4 MPH (brisk walk) permits you to close your eyes and get out some frustration when it's cold outside, take a call with a colleague, or, read non-intensive (Hacker News) material. My knees hurt after a very short while... so I hardly ever do this.
The lifespan's desk has a built in arm-pad that really, really helps the movement/shock so that you can type ... even at 3MPH. If I were to buy it again, I'd get the more expensive model though, I find myself lubricating the track all the time and it's irritating.
> This is way easier to do than just standing... I can do this for hours without pain or fatigue.
Thanks for the response. I also find standing to be be incredibly fatiguing and not really a workable solution, so I was wondering if a treadmill would just be the same thing, but with a much larger investment before learning that it wouldn't work.
It was unclear from the article how long they've been using the standing desk to start having these problems.
We've been using standing desks for 6 months now and it's been great. Though we read up on it a lot before implementing, so we knew to start with the gel mats (and they really do help). We also knew the best solution was to stand and sit. Rather than invest in desks that raise and lower (which are expensive and seem like more effort than it'd be worth), we found some nice drafting chairs, so it only takes half a second to switch between standing and sitting.
Perhaps I'll do a writeup soon about our sit/stand workstations.
I've been using a mix of standing and using either a high drafting school or a geek desk with a firm chair for about 2 and a half years.
I never have back pain like I used to and never have foot or ankle pain. Whenever I get uncomfortable in any way, I switch from sitting to standing. I figure this is a pretty good sign from my body that I could use a change.
That said, the first week of standing including some restlessness and foot/calf pain. This went away pretty quickly. Additionally, I've used a GelPro mat at both workplaces with standing desks.
I wouldn't necessarily say that standing desks CAUSE the injury, but you could make the point that going from standing for 0 hours to standing for 8+ hours in a single day or week could cause plantar faciitis. Maybe working up to standing for that long, or standing in intervals would be a better choice.
A great option would be to get a treadmill desk and walk at a slow pace. Not only would you burn more calories but you would also constantly be shifting your weight, meaning less time being spent with your wait placed on one area of your foot. Obviously you would want to build up to 8 hours of walking as well.
All human movement is a skill and anything you "do wrong" over and over again will eventually cause injury. I'd recommend you take a look at Dr. Kelly Starrett's book "Becoming A Supple Leopard" the title may seem silly but the information inside is life changing.
This might be purely anecdotal as I don't know the exact causes for it off the top of my head, but I'd like to add sciatica to the list of possible conditions that may develop from standing too long. I know for me at least, I never had symptoms of it until I had a job that required lots of standing around. I would still walk around a fair bit and all that as well, but there were noticeably long periods of stationary standing too.
If you're not familiar with sciatica, it starts with a numbing of the right leg usually, and can develop into an all out debilitatingly painful burning sensation that can flare up at any relatively small stress on the legs. Well, I got that, and it's not fun. I had to get some orthotics to help mitigate the pain, but to this day I still get pretty bad flare ups if I do any kind of stationary standing that totals more than 20mins in a day without the orthotics; the numbness begins closer to the 10min mark though, so all out debility is easier to prevent. Walking for long periods of time is fine, it's just standing that's painful. And I stopped working at that standing job over 4 years ago now, with no other noticeable constant stressors going on since. So yeah, no standing desks for me unfortunately. Makes going to some concerts a pain on the ass too, which sucks, but that's another story.
I switched to a standing desk almost a year ago. Didn't take me long to decide that I wanted a nice thick gel mat to stand on. No, not a yoga mat. Something really thick and cushy, made for this purpose. (My 8yo daughter thinks it's awesome BTW.) I have also always taken breaks and switched to using my laptop on the sofa or loveseat for a while. It's also worth mentioning that I have a freakishly strong lower back. Maybe something to do with slinging 40lb boxes of books around a lot when I was younger. Anyway, when I used to frequent health clubs I'd always push 20% more on the lower-back machine than even the most hard-core lifter types. And I still get a sore back if I stand too long. Just don't do that to your body all day.
More recently, I switched from my ad-hoc pile of boxes to an adjustable-height desk (Ergotron Workfit-S). It's freaking awesome. I can switch between standing and sitting almost effortlessly, which makes a huge difference. Now I've settled in to a rhythm of standing 65-75% of the time, and sitting the rest, without ever having to break my concentration. It's really a lot better than either position alone, or expensive "context switches" between the two. I highly recommend trying it. If you don't like it, you can just leave the stand in your preferred position permanently.
After spending years in the military, where your profession is basically standing around for long hours without knowing what the hell is going on, I decided that standing sucked.
There is one general rule: get up and move around! The human body is built to resist staying in the same position for too long. We are built to move.
Go for a run! Or, just go grab a coffee across the street. Just move!
I've achieved a sort of standing desk meta-nirvana: I have a setup which is almost optimal in 3 positions, with only a 1 second transition time between them, thanks to the Swopper stool. Either I'm standing, or standing/leaning against the stool, or sitting directly down on the stool. The only adjustment I do is to move my stool closer or farther by about 1.5' with my foot. When I'm leaning against the stool, I'm short enough (5'4") that when it's set at maximum height, it's perfectly serviceable as a work stool. But when I sit down on it, it compresses so that my arms are level with the desk, and my feet can rest comfortably on the base. Otherwise, I'm in a standing/near standing position using my laptop on a stand. Things are optimized well enough, I find myself shifting positions without thinking about it. (Actually, I work in 4 positions. My bed is nearby, and sometimes I lie down to think.)
I find the "shoes with arch support" advise in the article to be horrible*
(*Disclaimer I am no doc, this is only based off what worked for me)
I spent years fighting plantar fasciitis, and tried every shoe, device, gimmick and (expensive) orthodic available. I spent $1000's on this, and my insurance companies spent even more on custom orthodics and docs. Nothing worked, and it actually got worse over time. I could barely walk some days, and traversing stairs backwards (this helped a little with the pain) was pretty common.
I assumed it was just due to a childhood injury on my left foot, and I'd just be suffering for life. But when my right foot got the pain ( only after using all the medical remedies and prescribed devices ) - I knew something was off.
A few years ago I heard about the barefoot running trend. On a whim I decided to try it (the barefoot part, not the running part, yet) and see what would happen - it would have been hard for things to get worse.
Fast forward to now - I have not had pain in years, lost weight (which also helped), and run 1/2 marathons and 5ks multiple times a year.
In my experience any arch support just helps lead to atrophy of the tendons, which cause the pain.
My remedy in a nutshell:
1. Before you get out of bed each day (and BEFORE you put any weight on your feet) stretch both feet (even if only one is having a problem). Grab your foot at the ball and pull back (gently, you're not trying to snap your foot). Hold for 60 seconds. repeat on each foot 2-3 times. Over time you can dial this back, but keep at it for a few weeks and you will notice a difference.
2. Stay "barefoot" as much as possible. Walk around the house barefoot, wear thin, flat shoes when possible (Nike Free, Vibram, Vivo, or any thin sole shoe without a big heel - normal sneakers suck)
3. Read Born to Run - it's a great book :-)
Hope this helps some. I suffered for years, and it sucks. Happy to answer questions.
For people who have experienced this, it's worth noting that planar fasciitis can also be caused by your sleeping position. The stretching advice still applies but you can also modify your sleeping position to remedy the pain.
Wait till standing desks have been in fashion for some decades and you'll start seeing stories about people getting Thrombophlebitis in their legs.
Seriously, get a good chair and sit in it. Get up every half an hour or so, also strech your legs while sitting. Raise your toes forcefully to get some blood flowing through your lower legs (this should be done automatically every couple of minutes without thinking). Put your feet on the desk every now and then.
Do some rigorous exercise every couple of hours or so.
> Wait till standing desks have been in fashion for some decades and you'll start seeing stories about people getting Thrombophlebitis in their legs.
Sitting for too long causes Thrombophlebitis too.
Standing desks are fine. Just like sitting, you don't stand all day. You take breaks. You move around.
The greatest benefit of a standing desk is you're more readily able to take breaks. You're already up. I think anyone with a sitting day job can attest to skipping breaks because of the effort of standing up. Yes, you heard me correctly, and it's true. Sometimes you're so into a problem or issue your brain tells you to skip taking a break because it's not worth the effort of getting up.
I've seen quite a few older folks who had the condition and they usually shared one thing: their careers involved standing most of their working day (store clerks, masseurs and such).
So from my (possibly subjective) experience, I'd say standing all day is worse than sitting all day as far as T-phlebitis goes.
I thought it was me, I've been working at my standing desk at home for about >3 months now and my right foot (my left knee is a mess so my bad standing posture puts all weight on the right leg) is in a real pain.
I have a standing desk at work, and started having the same issue, but got it sorted out. This may have already been said, but if you buy a cushioned floor mat, designed for people like machinists who need to be on their feet all day, it makes a big difference. I try to stand about half the day with the mat, and sit the other half. About 4 hours each, intermittently. Feels pretty good so far after about a month.
I use a standing desk and I have never used a standing desk without proper sneakers that have nice soles. I also use the anti-fatigue mat. But above all, I have a high chair which I use to change my position and sit on if I am tired. Alternating between sitting and standing is the best thing.
Having the ability to control the height of your desk helps. When your feet get sore, lower the desk and sit. It also helps to keep the leg muscles active with small movement.
I think they meant that once you injure your foot, physical activity is so painful that you stop exercising or walking around and then you put on more weight which makes the injury worse.
I'm more interested in the sitting part. As more and more jobs turn into "services" types of jobs, where you just do work on a computer, how do we as a society solve this problem of everyone sitting 8h+ a day in a chair (and probably not even a very comfortable one)?
Maybe we'll get lucky and Glass type of computers will be useful and productive enough 10-15 years from now, that we can do most jobs with such a wearable computer.
Folks with weight problems or diabetes tend to have foot issues as well - exaggerated pronation/supination, plantar fasciitis, and swelling to name a few. There are solutions for nearly all of these problems and are highly recommended for general use, not just for standing desks.