Standing Work Stations Are Older Than You Think and Here to Stay

Sitting down to work has only become the norm for the past few generations of modern workers. Michelangelo, Thomas Jefferson, and Ernest Hemingway all stood up when they worked. There's even evidence that large, communal tables built for standing around were common in workplaces from the mid-19th through the early 20th centuries. So if standing workstations are nothing new, why are they back in the conversation now? For one thing, we're just getting around to dealing with the consequences of a much newer -- and problematic -- phenomenon: the way we use chairs. Chairs became the focal point of office design as technology and automation reshaped modern industry. You had to sit in a chair to work at your typewriter, your telephone, and then your computer. The more jobs that came to rely on those sorts of activities, the more sedentary our work cultures became. But before long, we began experiencing some of that culture's harmful consequences -- from back and leg pain to more serious health issues. These days the research is substantial enough to justify the latest adage that "sitting is the new smoking." The idea clearly resonates with enough of us to support the growing array of new products designed to get us back on our feet at work -- including standing desks, treadmill desks, and bike desks, just to make a few. Those devices have quickly moved from the faddish periphery into the mainstream. They've already emerged as tools that can only only improve our health but also i...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news