Standing desks, can they really help with pain?

Dr. Matthew Richardson DC, MSACN

Hello! Standing desks have become ever so popular; in fact its one of the most commonly asked questions in my office! People ask me "Do you think I should get a standing desk?" The short answer...maybe! The long answer...most likely, maybe!

The reason: It is NOT a sitting vs standing issue, it is a movement vs sedentary issue. Even if your work station is set-up perfectly, being seated for long periods promotes lower back pain, headaches and muscle tightness. Just like sitting, standing for long periods also promotes lower back pain, headaches and muscle tightness but the pattern and mechanism is different. Proper work-station setup, or ergonomics, doesn't eliminate the stresses to the body, it simply reduces them therefore the better the setup, the more stress gets eliminated.

So should you just flip back and forth throughout the day? The problem with this is that you workstation needs to be set up differently depending on whether you are standing or sitting. So I tell people, pick one and stick with it. Make sure your set-up is the best it can possibly be and when issues come up, have them addressed quickly. The longer you are in pain, the more your body learns to compensate for that pain