Plague of spine diseases?
Spine diseases are the bane of modern civilization, hours spent in front of the computer in a sitting position, little exercise, overweight / obesity – all this multiplies posture defects and degeneration. For people struggling with such problems, the possibility of temporarily changing the load while working from a sitting position to a standing position is often extremely helpful in improving health and increasing the comfort of work.
A desk with adjustable height, at which you can work both while sitting and standing, has a positive effect on reducing the load on the spine, because incorrect sitting posture is one of the main causes of pain. – emphasizes Aleksandra Wojciechowska, M.Sc., McKenzie Institute Therapist, physiotherapist with 15 years of experience in the diagnosis and treatment of spine and joint pains.
It turns out that desks that allow you to work in a standing position are beneficial not only for posture and condition of the spine, but also to maintain a healthy body weight. Now it’s not just a guess.
A desk can slim down?
In the case of children, it is not easy to check the dependence of the impact of using a desk with the possibility of learning in a standing position. Children grow, increase their body weight, which also naturally changes their BMI, i.e. body mass index (body weight (kg) / height (m) 2).
In one of the schools in Texas, four classrooms were equipped with special desks that could be used both in a sitting and standing position. In the next four rooms, traditional, sitting desks for students were left. At the beginning of the third grade and at the end of the fourth grade, the BMI of the same students was checked. It turned out the group who learned at desks with possible repositioning had a lower increase in body mass index than the control group. This result was independent of gender and race.
These types of innovative desks are part of the Permissive Learning Environment (APLE) strategy, aimed at encouraging students to take an active part in classes instead of tediously sitting for several hours at a desk.
According to Jan Bielicki – a specialist, surgeon, traumatologist – orthopedist, expert in in the field of STEM CELL therapy at Medical Magnus Clinic in However, the study does not bring anything new to our knowledge.
About the fact that we burn more when standing calories than sitting, we have known for many decades and I think most adults, regardless of education or background, have it awareness – emphasizes the orthopedist.
Can anyone use a height-adjustable desk?
Maybe it is worth introducing a permanent solution that allows you to burn more calories “by the way”? But is it safe? It turns out that in most cases there will be no contraindications to this mode of work, as long as you change your position regularly, with the proviso that we are talking about healthy adults. The case may be more complicated in the case of children and when there are additional illnesses – more on this later. In any case, remember to regularly change the position from sitting to standing and vice versa, if you decide to work at this type of desk.
Remember to change positions! Prolonged standing can impair circulation in the lower limbs, causing them to swell. However, the possibility of changing positions reduces such risk – emphasizes Aleksandra Wojciechowska, MA.
Despite the advantages of desks that allow standing work, you should still have on note that this mode of operation may not be suitable for everyone. This is emphasized by the sports physiotherapist MSc Sonia Porzutek:
Standing desk work will not be suitable for people with abnormal posture (e.g. common lumbar hyperlordosis) or other biomechanical disturbances (e.g. asymmetric loading lower limbs). The golden measure for this situation would be a correction existing irregularities under the supervision of a specialist and a change in the mode of operation from static to dynamic.
According to our orthopedic specialist, Jan Bielicki, the standing position to a much greater extent requires constant control of many aspects of the posture, such as the preserved spine curves, keeping the back straight in the frontal plane, proper positioning of the knees and ankles, the position of the elbows, etc. It is very difficult to enforce these rules in a child.
It should be remembered that in children of developmental age, the development of the skeleton is much ahead of the development of the muscular system, and thus the joints have poor active stabilization. If we add the presence of epiphyseal cartilages to this, it will be very easy for postural defects and overload pains in standing position.
Bielicki emphasizes that the sitting position, in compliance with the principles of ergonomics, is more comfortable, easier to withstand for many hours and with the appropriate shape of the seat and backrest – safe. So you have to be very careful if you intend to introduce such a solution to a child.
As you can see, any news should be approached with great sense and calmness. The most important thing is to maintain the right position – both when sitting and standing. Changing your position is most beneficial, but how to implement it is not so clear anymore. If we have any problems with the spine, limbs, etc., we should consult an experienced orthopedist or physical therapist. Perhaps in our case, what is good for the majority will turn out to be fatal for us.
Bibliography:
Stand-Biased Versus Seated Classrooms and Childhood Obesity: A Randomized Experiment in Texas. American Journal of Public Health, 2016; e1 DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303323
The photo is from: DaveFayram via Foter.com / CC BY