It is just a standard entry level lab job, but one interesting thing about it is the amount of time I end up spending standing. I work anywhere from 8 to 11 hours a day, and almost all of that is standing. And I mean standing, not really moving around much at all! We all know that sitting is very bad for us in many respects, and as a solution we are starting to see more and more standing desk options. Even more recently I have started to see some walking desk options, by putting a treadmill under a standing desk. Having recently made a transition from a primarily sitting lifestyle to a standing one with out much walking I'd like to share a few observations I have made over the past few weeks.
- I am getting a lot less sore from workouts now that I am standing more. And I mean a lot less. In fact, I'll notice I start to tighten up the day or two after a strenuous workout just over a half hour lunch break, or my 20 minute ride into work. I think standing helps to keep some of the blood flowing through our bodies, and that will really help especially in your legs after heavy squatting. I think walking would help this even more, and I can't wait for the weather to warm up a bit so I can spend my breaks taking short walks.
- I'm insatiably hungry these days. Standing really does burn a significant, at least for me, amount of calories, and to compensate my body is hungry almost all the time! If someone was interested in dieting, standing a lot could be a convenient way to help burn a few extra calories, if you can manage to keep the hunger cravings away, unlike myself.
- I may be a fairly young buck at 22, but I can tell sitting has already left some lasting problems in my musculature. I am unnaturally tight in certain parts of my hip that I can tell are from sitting. Standing is helping to make a me aware of these problem areas, and hopefully I can start tackling them and getting my mobility going again before sitting takes over my life again. Or maybe just standing more will help these muscles to losen on their own, just through more use.
- Standing is hard work! This goes hand in hand with the hungry point, but I thought I would mention it separately. I remember in one episode of the mobility wod he talks about how the little ledge at every bar ever is there so that you have something to put your leg up on and take yourself out of extension. This, he says, makes it easier to stand for a longer period of time, and for a bar allows you to stay and drink more. However, for those of us standing all day this is a life saver. I could not stand that long without getting out of extension regularly.
An argument against sitting for most experts is usually rooted in evolution, and anthropology. Our ancestors rarely sat, and we can see this in the low amount of sitting traditional cultures do. They then proceed to tell us that standing is a better option. Wait a second, I certainly don't see traditional cultures sitting often, but I don't see them just standing around either. I think the human default must be that of constant movement, and extremely varied movement. Think of all the complex movements you would have to do out gathering, or even working in a field, all the bending, crawling, kneeling, and twisting you do out hunting. We aren't meant to sit, and the negative effects of it are becoming more and more apparent, however, I don't think just substituting in standing is the most optimal thing to do.
This realization that movement is our default and we need to just plain move more is some what ironic for me personally. A couple of months ago I was thinking about these treadmill desks I was hearing about and thinking about how stupid they seemed. I was even considering writing a post about how I thought the standing options was just as good, and you shouldn't waste your time with the walking crap. But after some forced self experimentation I can see that I was dead wrong, and constant movement throughout the day is the best option. So, whether it is taking walks on your breaks, using the stairs, or anything else you can think of just try to move a little more throughout your day!
This post coincides with something I've been thinking about lately. Over the past couple years, I've really come to realize how much mobility dysfunction has accrued from almost 40 years of 8 to 5 sitting. About a year ago, I really tackled these mobility restrictions, focusing many on my hips and upper back. The result of this attention was chronic pain in my left knee and general tightness in the entire left side of my body. After almost a full year, and only by really increasing my awareness of the restrictions, I started focusing on my lower back and psoas, and am starting to see some progress.
ReplyDeleteWhich makes we wonder just how adaptive is the body? If I do even a half hour of mobility work a day, but then spend the next day sitting for 10-12 hours, am I realizing a net gain or net loss?
I just started a second job for the weekends, and the front desk at this office is higher than regular desks. There's a taller swivel chair behind the front desk, so I usually spend maybe 40% of the time sitting, 60% standing. After reading this post I'm going to make a conscious effort to stand whenever I'm at that job, since my full-time weekday job is 95% sitting. I'll also try to walk around more often at both!
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