My new stand up desk
Hi,
I put this in the Training forum because one of my primary interests in "going vertical" was to give my legs another 6+ hours of work a day. Gosh, I wish I were kidding. 
So here's my new setup at work:
I researched a lot of options for raising up the monitor, laptop, keyboard and mouse, and settled on the Ikea coffee table. I've been using it for 4 days now, and it's quite solid. Cost for the table: $40. On day 1 the facilities guy came by and we worked out some safety modifications - he cut some rubber feet for the legs (to prevent slipping), and he installed a small L bracket on one of the back legs to connect it to the wall. At my request, he also got me the 1" mat to stand on. I was hoping it would be a tad more cushy, but I think it does help.
Key "do it yourself" tip - measure, measure, measure. The key measurement for me was the height of my forearms while typing. Then I stood up and measured where I would like them to be, and got a table just a bit taller than the difference. The 'bit' was made up by the floor mat. I would also like it if the table were an inch less in depth - it hangs over the side of the desk more than I would like. But for 40 bones at Ikea, it was close enough!
As for how it's working out...
Thankfully, on day 1 we had a company bar-b-que lunch, and my son had a dentist appointment, so my first day of standing was more like a half day. And that was good. My back and legs were pretty tired.
The next day was more of a normal day, but I did have quite a few breaks. This week I've been standing pretty much full time...but I find myself CRAVING meetings where I can sit for a bit! By the end of the day my legs feel pretty tired, but my back has adjusted.
From a productivity point of view, I think now that I'm over the novelty of it, I'm pretty much back to normal. I can type and read just as if I were sitting. I do get in a bit more dancing (only subtle knee movements
) while listening to Pandora when coding.
Moving forward, in the short term I would like to get a 6-8 inch step stool that I could rest one foot on - kind of like a bar rail. This would also be put to use when my closest co-worker needs to view my screens - she's only 5'4" or so (her chin just clears my work surface!). In the sometime future, if I could figure out some of the many complexities, I would like to consider putting a treadmill in - but just for walking.
And yes, that's my 'window' on the right side. One of the guys thought it was sad that my office didn't have a window, so he went outside right where my window could/should/would be and took that photgraph and printed it out on our color copier!
Mike
Comments
Here's exactly what you need, a treadmill desk! The video is here
okay so now why do you want more time on your feet?? for ultra running? for extra fatigue??
m
Oh- and I'd need a full step ladder to see your screen!
Steph's company does a lot of work for Steelcase. They have a walkstation in the office now. This pic was shot as they set it up (not the best)
She's now walking at least an hour a day on it.
I've been thinking about this idea for a few weeks now. It's like all you EN folks are one step ahead of me. Love it!!
@Marianne - What pushed me over the edge was thinking about my 2011 race plans. My current plan is to try to get into Western States 100, and if I don't get picked then I'm going to sign up for the Desert R.A.T.S stage race. It's a 148 mile, 6 day foot race. In the 6 days is a 20 mile, 39, 9, 52, rest day!, and marathon. This got me to thinking that I need to be able to stay on my feet, all day, for many days in a row.
For those of you who are thinking about it, but don't want to commit to standing all day, there's a trick to being able to sit...rather than bringing your desktop down, bring your bootie up. Many people in the 'stand up' world have a bar stool available in case they want to sit.
Mike
I love the idea of a 'walk station'. Most of the people in our company have laptops, and we have 'guest' office that sits empty 97% of the time. We are an obesity management company, so I might just be able to sell this to the 'guys in ties'.
I like the treadmills that they had in the video Tom shared - they would fit under a 'normal' desk...though I would have to raise things up even more! Hmmm. looking at it again, I think it's actually an integrated solution. I think I'll look into possible solutions...
Mike
Both the video that Tom's posted and what Steph is walking is the WalkStation from Steelcase.
http://www.steelcase.com/en/products/category/tables/adjustable/walkstation/pages/overview.aspx
http://www.patrickjohnmccrann.com/self-care/sitting-vs-standing-at-work-why-you-need-to-raise-your-working-game/
I've also had a stand up desk setup for over a year. My main motivation was relieving neck/shoulder strain. I do software development so I'm in front of the computer 50ish hours a week for work and then however many extra "personal" hours. I was starting to get a lot of pain in my upper shoulders. The stand up desk has definitely solved my ergonomic issues.
Not sure what it has done for overall fitness, but I do notice, even after a year in this position, that standing for 8 hours still has my ankles & feet feeling tired. Doesn't seem to affect my workouts but it is a noticeable thing in the evening.
My desk is from www.geekdesk.com/default.asp with a custom top I made. Pretty inexpensive setup for an actual adjustable desk.
I am jealous of all your fancy-schmancy solutions...I had to be a little more economical.
Here's what I've done - our team calls it the "$20-thousand desk" because that how much all those WONDA books holding it up cost. I think other people in the department have different names for it. I was partially hoping to shame someone into getting me a real desk - it's too early to tell if that's working. It's a little blurry because my camera phone is not so good.
I finally decided to do it after reading the study which said sitting all day at work was a risk factor for higher mortailty - even taking into acocunt all other factors. The side effect has been my hips starting to loosen up some - a real problem area for me. I'm hoping the glutes follow soon.
I'm giving this a try too. Totally low budget at this point (milk crates and cardboard boxes) but I figured I'd test the waters before going crazy. Only half a day with this setup and my feet are already tired, so I think I'll sit back down after lunch. I do like the better posture I seem to be in (although I already think my screen needs to be a tad higher). The question however is if I'll eventually learn to slouch while standing (which is basically what happened with the swiss ball as a seat dealio- eventually you learn how to balance on that thing with really crappy posture). This seems to work well for working on the PC so far, but actual document editing seems kludgy- I still wanna sit down for that.
Mike
My monitor is a wall mounted flat screen with the central axis at 1" above eye level. If someone can give me the idiots guide to posting pics on the forum I will post a pic next week.
I will say that standing 8 hrs per day on days where I have done a long run or following a hard interval session it appears to mess up my recovery. The old cyclists adage of 'why stand when you can sit, why sit when you can lay down....' seems to hold some truth.
I do burn more Calories and my back us healthier, hip flexors and hammies are probably better too.
I do still have a chair and lower desk for sitting occasionally. Usually when I'm working on a particularly challenging document- but the majority of my day is at the stand up desk.
One more month of this and I think I'll get Joe to build me a more refined and permanent workstation.
Nemo, that's awesome! I've been standing about 6 weeks now, and it's become a lot easier. I too notice less hip tightness. I'll be interested to see how things go when I really bump up the running miles.
I'm starting to build up support at work for treadmill walking station like Dan posted up. The idea would be to install one of the motorized lifting desks over a quiet treadmill, put in an old computer hooked up to a big monitor, and a docking station (most of us have laptops). I would then register the treadmill as a resource in Outlook, that way people could book their time. I've already had people tell me that they would put money in a jar each walk to help pay for it!! We're an obesity management company, so hopefully management will see the vision!
Mike