Is a Stand-Up Desk for you? Or can you find a better question

By Matt Watson

As I mosey about my Friday morning, my trusty laptop and I are outside behind the office, pleasantly nestled into the cool fall desert shade of a massive, gnarly and deteriorating Chinaberry Tree. Reviewing e-mails, chatting telephonically with staff and clients, and because I have rare a morning with no appointments on the calendar, I am exploring the mind-space to evaluate how I do my best work.

I am, and always have been, an outside guy. For as long as I have memories, I have preferred to be out of doors, enjoying fresh air, natural sunlight, and the ever-present and symphonic chatter of whatever bird life happens to occupy the spot on the planet upon which I find myself. A description of this morning’s “office” setting will offer some context. To take advantage of the mid-morning shade offered by the aforementioned Grandmother tree, I have situated an old, heavily built plywood workbench repurposed as an outside “desk”, which I painted a bright, indigo blue. Atop the behemoth desk is a slightly dusty, inverted blue milk crate. And perched solidly on the crate sits my laptop. It is for me the perfect stand-up desk and offers an exceptionally comfortable working space. I very much like comfort.

Commercially fabricated stand-up desks have become a thing, and I am a fan. Mostly. The weakening of the human organism that inevitably follows endless unconscious slouching in a cushy chair, compounded by staring at and interacting for hours with a screen that emits artificial light signals has been referred to by scientists as the 21st century health equivalent of smoking. The purpose of this article is to identify and flesh-out the detrimental health effects of sitting all the time and offer some suggestions, among them the stand-up desk, as to how to address the modern disease of slouching and inactivity.

The human being is an incredible organism developed over millennia and through infinite trial and error into one of the most successful creatures known to inhabit the Universe. Competitors for that title include coyotes, mushrooms, cockroaches, and mosquitoes. At some point however, the humanoid stood up tall, looked left, then right, and in so doing developed a physiology that allowed it the capacity to pay relatively close and quick attention to the vast landscape through which it meandered daily. The human’s highly fluid mechanics are centered around a uniquely vertical spinal column. Affixed at the apex of the spine is a complex set of well-protected sensory and processing systems encompassing sight, sound, smell, taste, and intuition. At its base, it connects to a robust and sophisticated system of structures enabling us an unparalleled combination of mobility and load bearing capacity.

We developed both as a result of, and with the purpose of moving and engaging fully with the Natural environment around us. For almost the entirety, ( 99.249%[1]) of our history, that environment encompassed everything, in every direction, and stretched as far as our eyes could see and our legs, animals or boats could carry us and all our stuff. Humans rocked it, mastering the arts of survival, community cooperation, and the creation of tools and systems that transformed our need to simply survive into an artful ability to thrive. We are actually so good at thriving, that in the last several hundred years, after thousands of years of a delicate and barbaric dance of thrivey/survivey living, we arrived at the enticing shores of what I have come to call the “Comfort Conundrum”. And boy oh boy do we love us some comfort.

I imagine you having some thoughts along the line of, “the five minute journey through human evolution has been super fun, Matt, but how in the heck is any of this relevant to the concept of a stand-up desk”?

Let me explain. But first, I need to grab my laptop and maneuver myself back indoors. As the sun climbs toward noon, I’m tired of standing and it’s awfully bright out here.

Ok, I’m back, typing on the same laptop, which is now comfortably situated on my lap as I lounge in my treasured and well-worn second-hand chair, built by an unknown craftsman, in a time when that word meant something. Nestled into a dark, cozy corner, the space is lit by an old brass lamp, and sits beneath a large painting depicting a sprawling high desert landscape. The old oak and leather chair allow me to gently recline and continue my work. I do so love me some comfort.

Where were we? Oh yes. The mechanics of the human body. All that thrive and survive stuff was built on movement. The human organism is so good at adapting to such a wide variety of environments, that once placed into a given circumstance, it will naturally reshape and realign itself to first survive that spot, and then thrive there, always with an eye on more comfort.

Throughout most of our existence, we had to move well in order to find or catch things to eat while simultaneously steering clear of neighbors and other creatures seeking to turn us into lunch, take our stuff, or be made into an involuntary workforce. The Law of the Jungle was harsh and unforgiving.

Following the Industrial Revolution, and the advent of the ability to produce massive amounts of food and other items that make life easier, we have had far less need to run, jump, climb, lift, throw or swim to survive. Ironically, those activities for the modern western human are almost now exclusively performed as sport or hobby, almost never of necessity. Moreover, with the automation of everything, increasing numbers of humanoids are now able to sit comfortably into a fine oaken and leather chair, leisurely banging away at a laptop for most of the day, and free from worries of finding enough to eat or being eaten by another creature. It is a beautiful thing, and we are taking to the whole operation like the proverbial duck to water. Excuse me while a take a sip of my spiced black coffee with a splash of half-n-half. Have I mentioned how much I love me some comfort?

We are, however paying a high cost for all this comfort. Because so many of us no longer run, jump, climb, swim, etc., ever, our bodies are evolving to not be able to do those things. We could have a hot philosophical discussion as to whether this is evolution or “de-evolution”, but let’s save that for another day. The soft, comfortable and squishy fact of the matter is that we are in a use-it-or-lose-it situation.

But what about the stand-up desk? We are almost there. I promise.

We are now way beyond the post-industrial era. We have figured out how to have someone or something else do most needful things for us. Even if we had a desire to fix or make stuff, most manufactured goods are designed to be used up and quickly thrown into the trash heap so we can buy some more stuff with credit. Cooking? Nah. Why do that when I can simply pull through multiple lanes of fast-food drive thru traffic and have some cheap, delicious “food” handed to me through a window? Climb a tree? For what? How about a daily walk? No, I’ve got Tic Tok to attend to.

One of my most fond and vivid memories comes from when I was about four. It is of my Grandfather who, like many of his generation, could fix or build practically anything. He’s on his hands and knees and in his strong working mortar with a trowel, artfully creating a tier of bricks about two feet off the ground. I piddled around his backyard doing my thing, yet mesmerized by that guy and whatever he was doing that day. He was building a large family room addition to the small, bungalow-style house he and my grandmother purchased shortly after he returned from the war. In doing so he moved. From the time the sun came up, until it went down, he was out and about doing. Moving.

Life has changed. Relatively few of us build, fix or make. If you do, you probably don’t even need to think much about a stand-up desk because all of the turning, lifting, carrying, stepping, twisting, and thinking you do keeps you from devolving.

But if we work at a desk, or sit for long periods of time, and we do not counter that lack of mobility, our bodies are daily adapting and reshaping to be the most efficient and most comfortable chair sitters possible. The longer we sit, straining our eyes and allowing our necks to stretch the eight pounds of noggin forward, a chain of imbalance results in which the front muscles in the hips shorten, the muscles of the core and low back weaken, and the shoulders and neck slump forward. Inevitably, we begin to experience pains in our backs, legs, shoulders and necks. Our circulatory and digestive systems also struggle to work optimally, especially when overburdened with massive amounts of unused calories. Left unchecked, this situation devolves further into a legion of diseases, slowly casting us out of the land of comfort and into that of the pain of a neglected and under-used body.

The good news is that with a small amount of conscious effort, this situation can be easily addressed. We simply must find some time to move our bodies on a regular basis. If you already have a regular movement routine that floats your boat, you’re way ahead of the curve, but many in our modern hustle and bustle culture have a hard time finding the time and other resources to commit to an hour at the gym, the yoga studio, or the dojo, all of which help us to move like our ancestors were required to.

A commercially made stand-up desk is a fine option, as it requires us to lengthen and strengthen the chain of muscles, connective tissues, and other structures weakened by excessive chair use. My experience, both personally and that gained from observing others, is that most people, including myself, don’t want to stand all day. To do so becomes a bit of a marathon. To address that reality many manufacturers sell desks equipped with variable height adjustment, allowing a desk jockey to sit or stand at the turn of a crank or the push of a button. There are a multitude of models available in a wide variety of price ranges. If that suits your fancy, do it.

Another option is to simply take short breaks. A few minutes every hour or so will do. Walk around the building or go outside. Do a few air squats, a couple of reverse lunges, some jumping jacks, a couple yoga poses, some push-ups, break dance moves, tai chi, qi gong, shadow boxing, ballet, or whatever brand of movement tickles your fancy. A favorite mid-day break for me is to simply stand up and hop in place, trying to make my entire body as loose as possible. It really makes no difference what you do. Just move. Move a little. Move a lot. Move gently. Move vigorously. Pay particularly close attention to moving side to side, up and down. Keep a small dumbbell or kettlebell under your desk and lift or swing it a few times. Just don’t hit the co-worker in the adjoining cubicle. Turn your head side to side, twisting your neck. Move your eyes around. As you do, pay attention to how it all feels. If something hurts, look at how your body is designed to work and ask yourself what in your daily routine throws you out of alignment. I’ll be right back. I’m going to grab a beer. I’m awfully thirsty this afternoon. It’s almost criminal how much I love me some comfort.

My last suggestion is to evaluate your work day. Can you make a few subtle changes? Its 2025. Zoom, Google Meet, e-mail, laptops, AI, text messaging, and an army of other technological advances make sitting at a desk all day increasingly less of a requirement. Can you vary your work space? If you don’t have the authority to make that decision, would your superior be open to some amount of alternative working space? If you are said superior, will you give some thought to creating an environment conducive to employee movement?

As members of our modern, post-industrial Comfort Conundrum society, most of us live in an era in which we have resources at our fingertips that even royalty of a few centuries ago could not dream of. So many resources in fact, that we must work hard to find ways to work hard. It’s a beautiful dilemma really. We have been gifted with so many more choices than were our forefathers. Look around your workspace. Perhaps a stand-up desk is your thing. Maybe a walk around the building every hour is more to your liking. Or maybe an old milk crate stacked on a brightly painted workbench behind the office is the perfect spot to get some things done. Love the comfort. Embrace the comfort. Just don’t let it eat you for lunch or press you into its involuntary servitude.

[1] This figure is perfectly precise and was calculated through hundreds or thousands of peer-reviewed studies, which I then coded into an algorithm designed for the purpose of arriving at the figure. You can trust me. I’m a lawyer.