Standing Desk Experiment Day 1: Building a Cheap Standing Desk

Standing Desks are in fashion at the moment, at least in the tech world. There’s been lots written about how it’s bad for us to be sitting down all day.

If you are sedentary and sit down for 6 hours or more a day:

• You increae your risk of heart disease by up to 64%
• You take 7 years off your life
• You’re more at risk from certain types of cancer

Also, calorie burning drops to just 1 per minute, and the enzymes that help break down fat drop by 90%. Basically, your body goes to sleep on you.

Working as a developer full time, but doing side projects in the evening when I can, I’ll spend 8-12 hours a day in front of a computer. Anything I can do to make that more comfortable, or prevent any long-term problems, I’m interested in.

I’m also quite into being healthy, especially where that overlaps with being techie. I’ve got an odd keyboard, an even odder mouse, and my copy of Fitness for Geeks. If I could justify the cost, I’d have an Aeron Miller chair and a FitBit.

So I really wanted to try a standing desk. Apart from stopping you sitting down all day, benefits are supposed to include better posture and generally feeling more alert during the day.

Making the Desk

You can buy standing desks and you can buy adjustable desks that let you stand or sit. You can even buy motorised adjustable desks with remote controls which you can use to freak out interns and visitors. But I didn’t have space for another desk, I had to build on what I already had – a standard office desk.

I did some measurements on my existing desk (to the confusion of my colleagues). The bit of desk I take up with the computer, keyword, mouse etc is 1 metre wide and 60cm deep. By playing around with a cardboard box I worked out that, when standing, my optimal height was around 33-35 cm above the desk. Your mileage may vary – obviously it’s a good idea to know what you want before you try and build it!

I went to B&Q (a UK DIY store) with lots of crazy ideas. The basic plan was to make another, mini desk, to stand on top of the original one, to bring it up to the right height. Possibly tubing, somehow attached to a plank of wood, which would be varnished, or something. Basically, I didn’t really know what I was looking for. But in the end, I found these, which definitely made everything a lot easier:

 

The best thing about these is that they’re exactly 33cm high, perfect!

This got round the problem of how to make a secure 90 degree joint easily – you can’t see in the picture but there are 4 screw holes in a square plate at the top.

I also found some Contiboard. Now, say what you like about Contiboard, but it’s already been laminated, it’s the same colour as the desk, and as long as you’re really really careful when moving it around (it’s more fragile than eggs and when it chips, it looks rubbish), it’s worth using and means you don’t have to paint or varnish anything.

So, my entire shopping list in the end consisted of:

• 5 x 32cm table legs
• 1 x Conti Board Maple Effect (L)2000 x (W)600 x (T)18mm  (again, the perfect width!)
• some screws
• some edging to make it look nice

I spent about £50, but have enough board left over to make another desk with, or use in something else.

It took about an hour tops to cut the length (I also cut an L-shape on the right hand side), add the legs, and stick on the edging:

 

I’m pretty happy with it. It won’t win any beauty awards, but it blends into the office quite well, it’s sturdy, I’m happy it’s not going to fall apart, it didn’t break the bank, it’s the right height and size. It works.

Using the Desk – Day 1

After putting it together, I used the desk at home for a bit. It felt pretty good, so I wanted to see what it was like “for real”. So I took it into work. So far, I’ve used it for 1 day. I’ll do another post at 30 days, then 90 days to report on how I feel.

After using it for a day, I felt pretty good. I certainly wasn’t tired, and didn’t have any muscle or joint pain. You would think that you’d feel knackered after a day standing, but I was OK. I’m relatively fit, but I’d already done an hour of CV and muscle stretching in the gym, followed by a 10 min cycle ride in.

One of the things I found is that I didn’t stay standing stock still. Without really meaning to I was shifting my weight from one foot to another, shuffling around, keeping moving.

It’s hard to say whether I was more or less alert than usual. I’m usually pretty with it on a Monday anyway. However, I do suffer from the 2-4pm dip, especially towards the end of the week – so I’m keen to see if standing helps with that.

In the first few hours I did get some pain in my neck and right shoulder. I think this is to do with using the mouse – I’ve been used to resting my hand on the desk, and now I’m engaging those muscles instead. I checked that my posture was OK, and I’m confident these muscle pains will soon subside as my body adjusts and builds up in those areas.

I also discovered that there’s a loose floorboard where I’m standing. So, every time I moved, it squeaked. This may become a problem…!

I sat down 2-3 times, for maybe half an hour total. These were natural breaks in my work, like a discussion with a colleague. I also sat down for a bit at lunch – but I also walked into town and back so I can’t have felt that bad!

Fringe benefit: at lunchtime you kind of want to sit down, but when you are, you can’t reach your computer! So you don’t spend your lunch-break surfing the internet or managing email – you have to find something else to do. I’m going to have to bring in a book. I see this as a Good Thing.

One of the big supposed benefits of an adjustable desk is that you can switch to sitting when you want to. You’re supposed to ease yourself into standing all day, doing an hour a day to start with, and building from there. I’ve never liked doing that though – I prefer to jump in with both feet. I didn’t find any problems with going straight in and standing all day. In fact, if I’d had the option to adjust and sit – I might have taken it, ended up apathetic and lazy, and started sitting again. At the end of the day, if I have to, I can unplug the laptop, put it back onto the “normal” desk, sit down, and work like that for a bit.

At the end of Day 1, I’m happy with the desk. We’ll see how it goes.