We’ve covered picking the ideal office chair, fixing up your workstation with a treadmill, and choosing the right office desk. But there’s another alternative for the web worker that we haven’t touched on yet: standing while you work.
While the idea of standing - instead of sitting - at your desk may seem unnatural, it has some high-profile advocates, including most recently Jamis Buck of 37 Signals (not to mention Donald Rumsfeld). There’s even a whole industry devoted to selling you higher-than-usual desks, including Standupdesks.com and Biomorph.Advocates of stand-up desks claim they think better while not relaxing in a comfortable chair. They also say that standing rather than sitting all day promotes back health and reduces leg problems. Other folks advocate mixing standing, sitting, and walking around to make sure you aren’t in one position all day. One tip from those who do stand all day: use a gel-based floor mat, such as those from GelPro to make the change easier on your feet.
Home-based web workers with children (or small pets) might also benefit from the relative inaccessibility of the top of a standing desk.
Judging by the relative number of standing desk and ergonomic chair vendors, standing while you work isn’t a mainstream option for the web worker. But judging by the comments on the 37signals post, those who have tried it really like it. What about you? Have you experimented with a position other than sitting down for your web work? How did it work out for you?
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