Top 5 Benefits of Height Adjustable Desks

After you’ve spent eight hours sitting at your desk, you neck and shoulders might be practically begging for a massage.

Go ahead, book that massage—you’ve earned it. Then, start looking into a few ways to make your workday more comfortable (and less crippling). Height adjustable desks, for example, could be the key to keeping you focused and feeling loose throughout the day.

No matter your size, this category of office furniture is designed with your health in mind. From improved circulated to reduced back pain, stay tuned while we cover five height adjustable desk benefits to help you feel comfortable and supported throughout your workday flow.

#1 Improve Circulation

One of the primary health benefits of standing—not sitting—at your desk is that the upright position optimizes blood flow into parts of your body like your feet, calves, and glutes.¹ When you sit for several hours at a time, you might end up experiencing some discomfort, particularly in your lower body.

Sound familiar? If so, you’ve probably felt it manifest in a few different ways:

• Numbness or tingling in your glutes
• “Pins and needles” in your feet
• Tingling in calves
• Sudden or prolonged muscle cramps

These can all be telltale signs of poor circulation and your body’s way of asking for a helping hand. You’ve likely heard that when you sit for several consecutive hours, it’s healthy to stretch and take walking breaks to improve your circulation. Standing often has the same positive effect. While walking and stretching are still part of keeping your body healthy, standing is another way to give your body the attention it needs.

#2 Keep Your Muscles Active

Your glutes bear the brunt of a long, seated workday. “Dead Butt Syndrome,” or DBS, is essentially when your glutes, after long periods of inactivity, appear to forget how to function when you start moving again.²

At its worst, DBS can lead to issues such as:

• Pain and stiffness in the hips
• Pain in the lower back
• Weakened hip flexors

For individuals who have high levels of activity outside the office, muscle problems from sitting can be more extreme. When you stand, you activate your glutes and their surrounding muscle groups. In addition to improving circulation to those muscles, you’ll keep them “awake” so they remember what to do when you’re walking or running. With a height adjustable desk, you can keep your glutes alert and engaged throughout the day.

#3 Reduce Aches and Pains

After signing off from your desk job at the end of the day, you might notice that your muscles or joints feel creakier than they did when you first sat down in the morning. That’s because your muscles and joints can stiffen when they remain static for most of the day.

The back, in particular, tends to be one of the first parts of the body to complain of stiffness or soreness. A common consequence of a sedentary or seated lifestyle is lower back pain caused by the compression of the discs inside your back.³

When you stand with proper posture, you elongate the vertebrae in your back and keep that disc compression from occurring. Standing tall at your desk can help reduce your back discomfort and prevent it from forming in the first place.

#4 Hit the Mental Refresh

Staying in one position for too long can sometimes make you feel sleepy, sluggish, and even unmotivated while at the office. When your body doesn’t feel stimulated it can hard to keep your mind feeling activated, too. Oftentimes, a change in perspective—or posture—can kick the feeling of brain fog to the curb.

So, why not hit the mental refresh button when you adjust your desk to the standing setting?

Hitting refresh with a heigh adjustable desk could help you:

• Focus on the project at hand
• Approach your work with a fresh mindset
• Find an energy boost during the workday

#5 Burn More Calories

We know that walking, jogging, or a the right yoga flow can get your heart rate up and burn a few calories. While you may not be able to update a spreadsheet while running on a treadmill, you can find other ways to work off calories throughout the workday.

Why height adjustable desk? Because the energy difference between sitting and standing at the office is about 10 calories per hour.⁴ That’s around 80 calories in an average workday. Spend the day on your feet and you might feel better about skipping your post-work gym session in favor of happy hour with your colleagues instead.

Sit, Stand, and Be Merry with Juniper Office

Whether your prefer to stand all day or switch between seated and standing, height adjustable desks give you the flexibility to customize your comfort. Plus, they’re a worthwhile investment that are sure to offer a high return—both for your body and your work flow.

Juniper Office offers a selection of height adjustable desks, designed for individual employees or for workplace pods (perfect for small groups of three to six). Plus, our team of experts can offer space-planning tips for an office design that’s just as sleek as it is supportive.
Reap the benefits of smarter workspaces with Juniper Office today.

Sources:

1. Cleveland Clinic. Are standing desks better for you? https://health.clevelandclinic.org/will-standing-work-improve-health/
2. Healthline. Dead Butt Syndrome. https://www.healthline.com/health/dead-butt-syndrome#symptoms
3. Harvard Health Blog. Don’t take back pain sitting down. https://www.health.harvard.edu/pain/dont-take-back-pain-sitting-down
4. Harvard Health Blog. The Truth Beghind Standing Desks. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-truth-behind-standing-desks-2016092310264