Most people are working from home these days due to the COVID crisis. But even if you were rocking the freelance life well before the pandemic hit, you probably realize that the seating arrangements in your home office are lacking in some ways. Your back and neck get creaky more often than you’d like, and it wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility that you developed some kind of carpal tunnel.
The fact is, most home offices or the simple set-ups we’ve cultivated to be able to accommodate our work from home are rarely attuned to the physical demands of actually staring at your laptop all day. If you’ve found yourself suffering through random headaches and a stiff back, then it is time for you to look into using a standing desk. This kind of desk comes with many health benefits and can help assuage the work from home blues. The following are three key benefits to using a standing desk at home.
Lower Your Risk of Obesity and Boost Weight Loss Efforts
The powerful image of a self-professed couch potato is a cliche for a reason, right? It’s because the more often you sit down during the day and do not exercise, the more likely you will be gaining weight. Basically, weight gain is caused by taking in more calories than your body burns. In order to effectively lose weight, you need to burn calories – preferably through some form of cardio activity. However, even small decisions such as standing at your desk as opposed to sitting can be tremendously beneficial. In fact, you are more likely to lose at least two hundred more calories standing and working as opposed to sitting down and working. Those calories can add up to generate considerable weight loss over a short period of time. So, if you consider the caloric difference when working at a standing desk as opposed to staring at your laptop from, say, a recliner, the health benefits become readily evident.
Sitting for long stretches at a time is heavily linked to obesity and conditions such as heart disease. However, when you’re moving, even if it’s as something as simple as standing for most of the afternoon, you’re bound to stave off the risks of the more unhealthy effects of sedentary work.Â
Reduce Aches and Pains
Most office workers complain of wretched back pain, particularly lower back pain. However, that complaint has probably skyrocketed with people who have had to work from home in the midst of the pandemic. Again, home offices aren’t usually properly set up for an individual’s specific physicality, nor are they meant to naturally meet the demands of working from a home computer or laptop all day. This is something that you would need to finetune yourself. A standing desk as that available at EZShopper.co.uk can help alleviate back pain considerably. In fact, several studies have determined that a standing desk can help workers with long-term back pain, and it even helps to correct posture. Improvements have been seen in the space of just a few weeks. Sitting desks – depending upon your physical condition – generally leave you a bit worse for wear.Â
Also, because a standing desk allows you to look straight at your computer screen without having to crouch too much or bend your neck at a weird angle, you are less likely to get neck cramps. And, tension headaches or migraines can be reduced considerably since you will be working at a much more natural position for you.
Boost Your Productivity
Standing desks can have a positive impact on an individual’s sense of well-being, and keep their cognitive functions engaged in a deeper, more meaningful way. As such, users tend to feel less stressed out or tired and don’t suffer through needless bouts of staring emptily at their screen, half asleep. People who sit at their desks all day on the other hand, often feel fatigued, low energy, and have trouble getting a lot done during the day.
This all means that your productivity with a standing desk tends to accelerate, because your focus is sharper, and you will feel more motivated to get to work and go through your to-do list at a much faster rate.
There are different ways in which you can make the most of working from home, and create a space more amenable to productivity and your health. Investing in a standing desk is definitely one key way you can have a comfortable workspace that will be beneficial to your health, and save you all the troubles and pain of sitting down and listlessly staring at your filing cabinet or laptop all afternoon.
