Michael Wood, CSCS, uses a standing desk at Koko FitClub headquarters
I like using a standing desk at the office because I know I can burn three times more calories standing compared to sitting. Finding additional ways to become more active during the day is important for additional energy expenditure. Adding a standing station at work, for example, in order to stand a few more hours over the course of each week, will help offset some of that inactivity that you may be experiencing. It’s great to exercise for 30-60 minutes a day but the real key is your activity level during the remaining 16 hours of the day (let’s assume 8 hours for sleep). A new study recently published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology showed just two extra minutes of walking each hour could offset the hazards of sitting too much.
Photo credit: Texas A&M Health Science Center
New research out of Texas A&M School of Public Health found students who stood more in the classroom were more attentive compared to their seated counterparts. The research, published in the International Journal of Health Promotion, looked at 300 students and found:
“a 12 percent greater on-task engagement in classrooms with standing desks, which equates to an extra seven minutes per hour of engaged instruction time.”Any teacher, like my wife, will tell you that any additional time that you can get students to stay focused would be more than welcome. Let’s try to emulate the young students on this one and find additional ways to stand more while at work, move a little more each hour and throughout the day.
References:
- Beddhu S. et al., (2015). Light-intensity physical activity and mortality in the U.S. general population and ckd subpopulation. CJASN DOI: 10.2215/%u200BCJN.08410814
- Marianela Dornhecker, Jamilia J. Blake, Mark Benden, Hongwei Zhao, Monica Wendel (2015). The effect of stand-biased desks on academic engagement: an exploratory study. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education, 1 DOI: 10.1080/14635240.2015.1029641
- Texas A&M University. “We think better on our feet, literally.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 April 2015.
Source: Stronger Blog
