Healthy Lifestyle - The Benefits of Standing at Work

We are constantly bombarded with health and fitness tips, but it's actually pretty rare to find any tips which you can easily incorporate into everyday life. We can use the stairs instead of the lift and cut down on coffee, but there are some things which seem impossible to avoid. If you work in any kind of office environment, you'll find yourself slumped in a chair for nine hours a day, five days a week; why not stand?

It sounds slightly unusual to stand at a desk, but there are numerous health benefits:

Posture - Standing at your desk can improve your posture substantially. Sitting at a desk all day can create an over-curved lumbar. Make sure your new desk is the right height, in order to avoid hunching at the shoulders and neck.

Metabolism - You'll find that a standing workspace will increase your metabolic rate, making it far easier to keep your weight down. Have a big breakfast to give your body the energy to stand all day.

Calorie Burning - Your body can burn between 80-150 calories an hour, depending on how much you're moving. You'll notice you core strength increasing, and your body fat plummeting!

Productivity/Concentration - Probably the two most important things in any office. Studies have proven that standing at the desk can prevent you from going on 'autopilot', which will prevent mistakes and distractions!

You don't have to sacrifice the contemporary design of your office (or home office) in order to have a standing desk space. In the 4 Living office, I have placed a small oriental lacquer table from our 'nest of tables' on top of our normal teak desk, creating a calorie-burning, concentration-boosting workspace.

Try it out for yourself and let us know how you got on!