Sitting is the new Smoking is the new Standing is the new..

I have had a couple of standing desks; they were the ones that came out around 8 years ago that used pneumatic cylinders and required you to grab onto two handles in order to modify the desk height. This desk height was not the actual desk height but instead where your monitors, mouse and keyboard were living that was then sitting on your actual desk. This design was awful to use, had limited space and was not very stable. Enter The future!

These electric dual motor desks have been popping up all over the place over the recent months / years and I figured why not give one a go. The market is very saturated with options, so I priced one out that was too expensive before I was reeled into a ~$500 USD price cap. I picked out this one from Amazon and a mat to go with it. I assembled it shortly after it arrived, and I have been using it since.

Amazon says the arrival date was 09/02/22 and I am poised to believe them.

Results thus far:

• Increased productivity (subjective)
• Decreased tightness in my hips

Procrastination is harder when you are standing

This is something that I hadn’t thought of, but if you force yourself to stand until you complete a task. You are less likely to procrastinate if you are looking forward to sitting.

V2.0 – The Short lived and Rarely Used Bike Desk,

I had seen this indoor trainer that really piqued my interest. It is a Wahoo Kickr Bike that can measure your power, go up when you are climbing virtual hills and pitch the nose forward when you are going down them. These features alone put this machine at more of a price range for people who are actual athletes and might be a post for a different day. Nevertheless, I saw that they were announcing a new version soon and this allowed the current version to go on sale for a significant percentage off. I leaped at the chance and was so excited when this bike arrived on a half pallet at my door. I put it together and the next stage of the standing desk was ready, BIKE DESK. Basically, the way that it would work is I would wheel the bike over to the desk after it was raised, and sit down and pedal away. Once completed, I would move the bike back out of the way so I could stand comfortably or sit comfortably without banging my arms on it. I was riding a cycling game called Zwift while answering e-mails or attending e-mails scratches two itches at once – the urge to exercise and the urge to play video games. The total amount of times that I used this while working was comically low, but this was more of a machine with a larger picture in mind which would be a dedicated indoor training environment that will come later in the chronology. I did have a laugh and even tried to ride the bike while playing the game “Fortnite” a couple of times with abysmal results. It turns out that multi-tasking in some cases, is just doing multiple tasks below the threshold of what many would call “acceptable”. I did get to ride the bike in an hour and a half long meeting once and that felt like I was somehow hacking time itself. Nevertheless, it was quite the sight – seeing a “professional grade” cycling trainer in front of a 4-display monitor setup. I will try and find a picture to attach.

V1.1 – Current – 1 year later

After relocating to the new office environment, I took the standing desk and I use it on occasion to shoot into the air and tackle tasks. The best possible way that this would work (for me) would be if it rose at scheduled intervals that were not subject to change (user intervention) and remained that way until it was time to sit again. Overall? I would say that it is a good buy and it completes the task that I had in mind when I bought it, with ease.

Potential Considerations

• If you use headphones a lot, I suggest relocating your 3.5mm jack to a place on your desktop or mounted under it with plenty of slack to allow the desk to raise without having to compromise your posture to lean to one side
• On that note, make sure all of your cables are capable of growing by an additional ~20 inches without adding additional stress to the ports that they are plugged into.
• Standing mat: If you are new to standing a lot or are coming back to it after sitting a lot, I would say that a standing desk mat is perfect to keep you engaged with minimal pain / strain.
• Monitor Mounts: ensure that your monitors are at a comfortable distance and view angle so that you do not have to move your neck out of the neutral position.