Improvising a Sit Stand Desk at home

It’s certainly been all change this season. Are you working from home?

Using computers and digital devices at home is something most of us do have plenty of experience with. But working from home -WFH daily? That’s a different matter. It’s really important that you are adequately supporting your health and wellbeing - perhaps now more than ever.

Doing as much as possible to maintain good fitness, happiness, limit pain and fatigue, and yes ~ Feel productive...

For a lot of people lucky enough to work for great employers, many of the environmental considerations are, or were, taken care of - including a good ergonomic desk and chair arrangement and DSE assessment. Both in the office and at home when this is a regular routine.

But now there are huge numbers of us WFH (working from home). My colleague/collaborator in the U.S. Raquel Baetz wrote this great article recently: ‘Do-It-Yourself Safe, Healthy Home Workstation’ Highlighting some of the essentials with practical tips. I hope you’ll read it (recommended) in conjunction with this blog and find it helpful.

By way as a follow up on the subject of ‘using a Sit Stand Desk’ while WFH, I wanted to share some (hopefully) inspiring images of how feasible it is to at least ‘try it out’... Here, we are using items you may already have at home. It might look basic, but having the immediate opportunity to stand up can be transformative. The first step is to see how it feels.

Sit Stand working brings a huge range of benefits if done carefully. This short blog offers simple ideas and insights for the creative process of enhancing your workspace at home. If it feels better, you can invest in an adjustable height desk or even build your own if you like. Talk to your employer about your ergonomic set up at home. Are your current desk and chair adequate? Are there options?

If you try some sit stand working and it helps, for instance to relive lower back pain, boost energy levels and importantly - give you the freedom to move more. Change position and posture more regularly. Stretch, walk, have a shake about... Great.

We’ll let the pictures do the talking and you can give it a whirl!

* Please note the Safety implications of balancing stools, boxes, books etc. on tables and the use of your digital devices! Please be practical.

Stay mindful of stability, table edges, weight of items... (you do know a lot about this, even if it’s calling upon childhood memories of making dens and platforms! ) Get creative, but keep it safe and solid.

Can you free up a storage crate, box or small drawer?

Perhaps you have a stool (+ table) a good height for your eye level?

Yoga bricks and blocks are useful ~ Or large sized books/directories.

Build up so your forearms are horizontal — elbows around 90 degrees.

Ensure it’s easy to revert to a comfortable sitting position regularly.

Could you create a broad standing height surface, if you needed one?

When standing longer, you really need to split keyboard and screen heights.

Using weight can ground your standing workstation. Confidently safe.

Once you’ve created something that is the right height and allows you to move easily between both sitting and standing, you can start to explore the possibilities ~ Making frequent changes to your position and posture. Taking regular breaks and ‘walking away from your screen’ whenever you feel like it. Tweaking the levels as you get more used to the arrangement. Having a look at helpful infographics on the subject of ergonomics.

A key to working well in a standing position is to be mindful of posture. Avoid stooping, hunching and having your head down. You’re really aiming for a comfortable, naturally upright position. Chest open, shoulders relaxed - facing your work as if talking to someone while standing.

Please do take a look at some of our other blogs and articles to further the process. Active working is about staying well by being more dynamic ~ Good luck!

We hope you gain on-going benefits wherever you work. And if you’d like a one to one session to find out more - please do get in touch.