My Stand Up Desk Update and Questions Answered

It’s been about 9 months now since Kate bought me my Multi Table height adjustable stand up desk for Christmas so I figure it’s time to let you guys know how I’ve been going with it.

If you’d like you can also check out some videos about it in our store.

Many people talk about how many calories you burn with standing vs sitting and how standing can help you lose weight. To be honest I’m 6’0″ and 173 pounds. I don’t want to get any thinner. Losing weight is not something I’m interested in.

I’m doing it primarily to increase energy levels and be more productive so we can add more value to you. Although I won’t lie, preventing heart disease and cancer aren’t bad secondary reasons to start standing while you work.

Recently I wrote an article about how we should shift our mindset from doing things because we don’t want to get diseases vs doing those same things so we can be healthier and live a better life. The article was about our motivation about why we do things. Are we moving towards something or acting out of fear and moving away from something? If you’re interested in that you can read more about that here.

I work about 10 to 12 hours a day 6 days a week on average. When I’m not working I’m doing my best to go surfing, workout at the gym or spend time with Kate and Maggie.

Doing any one thing for 60 hours a week is going to be damaging. So it’s important to offset the damaging aspects of whatever it is you’re doing.

I won’t get into all the benefits of standing or the dangers of sitting but I will say that I heard from a prominent NASA scientist that sitting for more than 6 hours per day (cumulative) increases your risk of all kinds of diseases like cancer and heart attacks.

I’ve also been reading lately that sitting for any more than 20 minutes at a time is very dangerous. So even if you can’t get an amazing stand up desk like mine, you should set a timer to go off every 20 minutes to remind you to get up and stretch your body.

There are two great online interval timers I use for various purposes. I use them for things like rebounding, sitting in the sauna and even doing meditation each night. Here’s the one I use for everything other than sitting. You can check it out here.

The other one I use actually times the entire time that I sit each day into a cumulative total so I can make sure I don’t sit for more than 6 hours in a given day. If you’re interested in that one, you can check it out here. Below is a screenshot of how I manipulate the settings in case you’re interested.

My goal at this point is to sit for less than 6 hours per day. I can’t go cold turkey like some people can. In order to do this I’ll have short intervals of sitting. I’ve been doing lots of research and have found this bar stool to be something I’d like to purchase in order to go from standing to sitting and back again quickly and easily.

Recently I’ve many people ask me about how I like our stand up desk. I figure now would be the time to talk a little bit about our experience with it so far!

What made you switch to a standing desk?

Mainly the health benefits of standing all day and to a much lesser degree the adverse affects that sitting has on our health. Daniel Vitalis talks a lot about rewilding ourselves. He talks about how as a culture the way we live has become very artificial. So doing what we can to make each and every thing we do more healthy is pretty fun and easy.

You can make mundane things like going to the bathroom healthier, sleeping on grounded bed sheets and even taking showers in filtered water.

Why use a standing desk?

We like ours because it’s height adjustable using a crank that you can turn to make the table to up or down in about 15 seconds. The company where we got ours even has ones now where all you have to do is push a button. Amazing right?

But don’t your feet hurt?

Yes they do hurt but like anything it takes patience and time to get over it. If you ease into it like I did going from sitting to standing (getting that bar stool helps tremendously with this) makes the transition seamless.

How did you convert your desk to a standing desk?

I took my table top from my old desk and simply bought a frame from Multi Table and bolted it on top. There are many ways you can convert desks to stand up desks and you can usually find videos about that on youtube.

What about those Treadmill Stand Up Stations?

Personally I haven’t got into those yet. Ideally I’d like to but I think they’d be too bulky in the studio here. I always want to have the option of sitting so I can’t see how easy it would be to move an entire treadmill out of the way just to sit for 20 minutes.

What shoes do you wear?

Typically I don’t wear any. Sometimes I’ll just wear socks and slippers if it’s winter and I have carpet here in the studio. If my feet get cold I start thinking about poor circulation, lack of blood flow and other issues like that. I try to wear shoes as little as possible.

Do you stand on a soft mat? If so, which one?

I don’t have a soft mat at the moment but that actually sounds like a great idea. I know Kate uses one when she cuts hair at the salon. That’s definitely something I’m going to look into.

Did you use any other gear in your switch to standing?

Other than the bar stool that is about it. It’s really as simple as just standing while you work and getting used to that as a lifestyle.

How long did it take you to get used to standing all day?

Well I don’t stand all day. I try to stand as long as I possibly can before my feet and knees start hurting. At that point I’ll switch to sitting. When I first started this article I was standing and right now I’m sitting. If we are supposed to sit less than 6 hours per day then you only have about 18, 20 minute cycles or intervals where you can sit.

Also I factor in miscellaneous sitting I do during the day. I don’t actually count that but it’s in my head. For example I might sit at the gym while I’m resting between sets. I might sit for 30 minutes per day while I’m eating dinner or sitting in our sauna. In order to add that time to my overall sit time per day I have to be well below 18, 20 minute cycles of sitting while I’m actually working.

Do you take sit-down breaks?

I take as few as possible and over time I’m hoping to be able to work up to taking zero sit down breaks. The reason I still have to take them is because I tore my acl in my right knee a few years ago and didn’t get surgery for it so it actually gets pretty tight and sore at times.