Health Benefits of Standing Desks
We have all heard it before – Get off the Couch!!
We might have heard it more times than we want to remember and, as much as we would like to ignore it, the shouting is getting louder and louder as research is highlighting the serious health consequences of our sedentary lifestyles.
The Australian Physiotherapy Association recently named the humble couch as Australia’s biggest killer. While we know that the reference may be a little tongue in cheek the underlying truth is that Australians need to move more, starting today.
“One of the best ways to maximize the brain is through exercise, movement”
Dr John J Ratey, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.
Health Benefits of Standing up more
Ergonomics has been created to fit the human body as our current lifestyle contradicts what we were designed to do – which is Move.
Homeostasis is the tendency of a system to maintain internal stability, owing to the coordinated response of its parts to any situation or stimulus that would tend to disturb its normal condition or function.
To retain a state of homeostasis our body needs to move, essentially movement produces endorphins, which help enhance our mood and encephalin, which minimises our pain. Movement lubricates joints, moves O2 and nutrition throughout our body and helps cleanse toxins.
- Standing has many benefits of walking and there is a distinct difference between too much sitting and too little exercise.
- Just adding an hour a standing a day increases blood flow and metabolism.
- Burns more calories.
- Improves focus and energy.
- Research shows more than 6.4 million Australians are doing less than an hour and a half of physical activity a week.
- Genetics, smoking, lack of exercise and poor diet play a huge role in the leading causes of disease.
- Physical inactivity is being referred to as the biggest public health problem of the 21st Century.