Should You Try a Standing Desk to Alleviate Back Pain?

A recent study revealed that individuals using standing desks reported alleviate back pain than those working at seated desks. However, they also tended to make more mistakes in their tasks compared to their seated counterparts. Prolonged sitting can result in back pain, stiffness, and headaches, and it may also hinder your concentration. Although standing desks offer some advantages, experts warn that the boost in energy expenditure from these active workstations is minimal, which limits their overall health benefits.

The pandemic kicked off a quest for optimizing work-from-home setups. To minimize back pain and maximize productivity, you may have considered getting a standing desk. If you’re still on the fence—or trying to decide whether your standing desk is helping you—consider the results of a new study.

From 2019 to 2020, researchers at Texas A&M University School of Public Health monitored 61 full-time adult office workers at a major university to determine just how beneficial standing desks are. The participants were placed in three groups based on their workstation type:

1. Stand-biased (to Alleviate Back Pain, a workstation with a fixed surface set at elbow height when standing paired with a stool or chair)
2. Sit-stand (a height-adjustable workstation)
3. Traditional (seated)

The study showed that the workers who used stand-biased desks spent more time standing and less time sitting than traditional or sit-stand workstation users. They also had less lower back pain than the seated group.

“Participants using sit-stand reported less discomfort in seven of the eight body regions when compared to the traditional workstation group,” said Tricia Salzar, PhD, MPH, CPE, a regional ergonomist and the study’s lead author, referencing the neck, upper back, lower back, shoulders, hips, knees, and wrist/hand.

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The researchers also evaluated participants’ productivity by monitoring their workstation computer use. The study found that workers who stood did have a higher word count output throughout the day, but there was no significant difference between the three groups otherwise.

The stand-biased and sit-stand users were “just as productive as those using traditional workstations,” said Salzar. However, people at standing desks made more errors (typos) than the seated group.

What’s So Bad About Being Sedentary to Alleviate Back Pain?

“When you are sedentary, your body’s ability to effectively use an enzyme involved in fat and glucose metabolism is impaired,” Jamie Beadle, PT, an orthopaedic physical therapist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told Verywell.

Over time, instead of being metabolized by the muscle, fat is deposited in adipose tissue. That raises your risk of chronic health problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and certain cancers.3

While there’s no magic number of hours that maximizes health and productivity, Beadle recommends avoiding extended periods of sitting. If you do tend to be seated for long stretches, ergonomists recommend breaking up your sitting time into 30-minute segments:

• Sit for 20 minutes
• Stand for eight minutes
• Do some light activity (stretching, a quick walk, etc.) for two minutes

“The key is to change positions and move,” Beadle said.

How to Get Standing Desk Benefits Without Buying a Standing Desk

Moreover, standing desks can be expensive, ranging from $100 to $1,500, and they’re not always compact or easy to move. If a standing desk isn’t practical for your setup or in your price range, Beadle said you can still get some of the potential benefits of the workstations in other ways.

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“A 60-to-90-second break every 30 minutes should be sufficient. Simply stand up and move a bit,” said Beadle. Time can fly on a busy day, so try setting a timer or calendar reminder to prompt you to get up and move.

You could also look into the other kinds of “active” workstations available. Pedalling, treadmills, and balance ball desks have emerged—but experts aren’t convinced that they offer all the physical benefits they tout.

“The amount of increased energy expenditure when using them is pretty negligible, so there’s not going to be much of a health benefit,” said Beadle, adding that if your work requires using a keyboard and mouse, an alternative workstation might be more likely to negatively affect your productivity.