The Phenomenon of Sit-to-Stand Desks

The phenomenon of sit to stand desks

• Key reasons companies are investing in sit to stand desks

• How long should employees sit and stand

• How to get users to use the desk

• Basic safety issues

Key reasons companies are investing in sit to stand desks

Design to fit the worker.

1.

Office chairs adjust to fit key body dimensions:

"Any fixed posture, no matter how closely it approaches the optimal, will generate muscle fatigue."

The key is to move more and give your body rest intervals throughout the day.

Reduce Risk Factors.

2.

Avoid risk factors:Increased risk of injury and added strain on body

Goal:Maintain comfort and productivity and avoid injury

Role of EHAWs:Quick and easy adjustments as needed

Awkward posture Neutral posture Adjust to personal specifications

Repetition Rest and neutral posture Help getting body in neutral posture to minimize injury risk

Extended reaching Things used most should be closest

Adjust to task

Contact stress Avoid compression of body Adjust desk to avoid compression

Prolonged static loading

Avoid static muscle fatigue through motion and rest

Avoid too much sitting or too much standing by alternating between sit and stand.

How do EHAWs tie into an ergonomics program?:

Your body naturally knows when it is time to move.

When you sit for long periods of time the muscles become fatigued, which cause an antsy, anxious feeling that induces the need to exercise muscles.

Movement is a natural response to alleviate anxiety and static muscle fatigue.

Sitting for too long is not good

• Static muscle fatigue• Increased spinal muscular activity and

intradiscal pressure• Increased muscle loading in the neck and

shoulder muscles• Decreased muscle activity resulting in pain

and/or spasms

• Retention of fat• Lower levels of good cholesterol• Overall reduction in the metabolic rate

New studies have shown:

Standing for too long is not good

• Static muscle fatigue• Sore feet• Swelling of the legs• Varicose veins• Low back pain• Stiffness in the neck and shoulders

“Alternating between sit and stand positions adjusts the amount of load on the body allowing for increased rest intervals of specific body parts, thus reducing the adverse impact of risk factors.” 3

Identify the risk factors:

Identify the risk factors:

More efficient utilization of space for facility management.

3.

Company image and employee benefit

4.

Wellness: The quest for healthy employees.

5.

Inactivity is a driver of obesity and poor health.

Obesity is a risk factor for disease.

Disease is a cause of absenteeism and increased healthcare expenditures.

.

Sit-stand desks can break-up inactivity

Obesity trends in the United States

Obesity Trends* Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1985

(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)

No Data <10% 10%–14%



No Data <10% 10%–14%



No Data <10% 10%–14%



No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19%



No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19%



No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% ≥20%



No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% ≥20%



No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% 20%–24% ≥25%



No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% 20%–24% ≥25%



No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% 20%–24% 25%–29% ≥30%



No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% 20%–24% 25%–29% ≥30%



No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% 20%–24% 25%–29% ≥30%



No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% 20%–24% 25%–29% ≥30%

32%The percent of Americans the CDC report are obese in 2012.2

2. ABC15 News “CDC predicts 42-percent of Americans will be obese by 2030, 5/8/2012

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/now/CDC-predicts-42-percent-of-Americans-will-be-obese-by-2030#ixzz24Ngvns6b

42%The percent of Americans that the most recent CDC report predicts will be obese by 2030.2

2. ABC15 News “CDC predicts 42-percent of Americans will be obese by 2030, 5/8/2012

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/now/CDC-predicts-42-percent-of-Americans-will-be-obese-by-2030#ixzz24Ngvns6b

How do these obesity trends impact the workplace?

Obesity trends and how they are impacting the work environment.

1. Could you stand to Lose, Mark E Benden, Ph.D., CPE

x10the number of lost work days and health care dollars that obese workers cost companies when compared to their normal weight peers.1



+13The additional work days lost to work-related injuries and illnesses by obese workers (over their non-obese counterparts).1



x7The additional cost of medical costs verses average workplace-related claims.1



x2The likely hood of an obese employee filing a work-related claim verses another employee.1


Source: National Public Radio

$73,000,000,000The resulting obesity-related costs to U.S. businesses.1

9 out of 10 people die from four largely preventable diseases: diabetes, heart disease, cancer and lung disease.

“Eat, Move, Sleep” Tom Rath

The correlation between activity and obesity.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)

Activity (exercise and

non-exercise activity)

The three ways our body burns calories:



The minimum amount of energy required to

keep your body functioning, including your

heart beating, lungs breathing, and body

temperature normal.



Calories burned when you are digesting food.

Depends on quantity and composition of the

food ingested

Activity exercise

non-exercise activity




Activity (exercise/non-exercise activity)


Male210 lbs

6’0’’Age 45

3419

3072

2725

2379

3767Extra Heavy (hard exercise 6-7 days/wk + physical job or extra training)

Sedentary (little or no exercise)

Light (light exercise 1-3 days/wk)

Moderate (moderate exercise 3-5 days/wk)

Heavy (hard exercise 6-7 days/wk)

What is considered sedentary?

People who walk fewer than 5,500 steps.

Average American gets 5,117 steps a day.

What should it be?

That depends on the individual and calorie consumption. A good target for overall health is 10,000 steps a day.


Main drivers of obesity:

• Sedentary Lifestyle

• Increased Calorie Consumption

Chicken Caesar Salad with dressing and a 12oz Coke

Calories: 1,153

Mixed Vegetable Salad with light tuna, half an avocado and 6 Tablespoons reduced fat Italian dressing, whole grain roll, water

Calories: 509

The thin line between a 1,600- and 3,000-calorie day

Source: Los Angeles Times called “Weight loss: The thin line between a 1,600- and 3,000-calorie day”

http://www.onlineuniversity.net/work-is-murder/

When you sit your calorie burning slows to 1 calorie per minute.


20%After two hours of sitting your good cholesterol drops by 20 percent.

http://www.onlineuniversity.net/work-is-murder/

x2People with sedentary jobs are twice as likely to die from heart disease than those with active jobs.

Long periods of sitting spike blood sugar and insulin levels

“In experimental settings, even two minutes of leisurely walking every 20 minutes was enough to stabilize blood sugar levels.”


Reduced Life Expectancy

A large scale study of 650,000 adults showed active lifestyles yield a longer life expectancy (regardless of how much you weigh).

People who were both obese and inactive lost about 7 years of life. Even 10 minutes of walking a day was associated with a

gain of almost 2 years in life expectancy.

http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Dec2012/Feature1

.4 Move a Little, Lose a Lot

Save $76.6 billionThe number we could reduce our yearly medical costs by if the 88 million sedentary people in the United States would increase their moderate activity level.4

A study with kids showed a 20% increase in test scores after two months of integrating standing into their day.

Also, the kids related to each other better, were less stressed and had more energy.

Sensors showed the children had doubled their activity.

http://time.com/sitting/

Mayo Clinic Study – Dr. James Levine

•Every food item the participants ate was served in the lab and precisely measured along with all of their movements.

•1,000 extra calories a day for two months

Mayo Clinic – overfeeding studies

Weight gain varied by person.

One person gained less than one pound and another gained 14 pounds. The rest fell in between.

The result:

Why the large fluctuation in weight gain between participants?

The result was that the difference between the obese and their lean peers came down to one thing –

general daily activity.

2.5The obese volunteers sat planted for a full 2.5 hours a day longer than the lean volunteers who stood, walked and fidgeted that much longer.

Some people are naturally hardwired to move in a response to food intake –

subconsciously they move more to make up for added calorie

consumption.

N.E.A.T.(non-exercise activity thermogenesis)

• Inconsequential movements accumulate rapidly throughout the day and have a positive impact on our health and well-being.

When we sit the enzymes that are responsible for burning fat just shut down.

Sitting too long slows our metabolism.

But there is much more benefit from moving and standing more than calorie burn and a higher metabolism …

- Decreased blood pressure- Decreased risk of stroke, heart failure, and

diabetes.- Increased life expectancy

• Exercising 30 minutes a day is not enough to offset the damage that can be done by sitting too long everyday.

• Getting enough movement and avoiding sitting to long is vital to good health

The Conclusion of the Research:

• Even those who were exercising more than 7 hours a week had a 50% greater risk of death if they spent more than 7 hours a day sitting.

• They doubled their odds of dying from heart disease.

• Exercise helps, but does not offset several hours of sitting.

Supporting Study: Evaluation of 240,000 Adults over a Decade

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22218159

Super-fit astronauts go into space and become rapidly less healthy by living without gravity.

Those who are bed-ridden or are inactive in general have very similar ailments.

The good news – astronauts can repair the deteriorated health that occurs when the body is not working against gravity and restore their health by returning to active life on Earth.

Getting people to stand and move can combat the effects of zero gravity and restore health and slow down the aging process.

60%of our skeletal muscles are devoted to opposing gravity.

The best strength-training exercise relies on you supporting or lifting your own body weight, thus working against the force of gravity.

More Stimuli Every time you stand up almost every nerve in the body is stimulated. This is good for you.

If you stand up 16 times a day for two minutes, the body would read that as 16 stimuli, whereas if you stood once and remained standing for 32 minutes, it would only see that as one.

Increased fat

Inactivity with reduced or eliminated small, frequent movements interferes with sugar and fat metabolism.

Deprived of the daily challenge of gravity, the metabolism of both astronauts in space and volunteers in bed is changed, with fat accumulating to replace lost muscle.

“Standing up often is what matters, not how long you remain standing.”

Joan Vernikos recommends a natural lifestyle of constant, natural movement that resists the force of gravity.

Specifically, she recommends the act of going from sitting to standing and back again between 30-35 times a day.

How long should people stand?

• Mixing sitting and standing throughout your work day is ideal.

• If you are sitting most of the day, try to mix in at least 15 minutes of standing every hour.

• Even better stand for 10 minutes every 30 minutes.

• Design a program that is realistic to the worker

2/3The number of workers that eat lunch at their desk.


We have engineered movement out of our

work day so basically it is up to us to design it

back in a way that is efficient.

Sitting and standing throughout the workday is a

change from how many people have worked their

entire lives.

How do we support this workstyle change with

employees?

Training

Why to use the desk and how to use the desk for THEM.

Setting Specific, Measurable Goals

•How long can you commit to standing* each work day?

•How many different times are you willing to stand*?

•Why do you want to do this? What do you think you will gain?

Reviewing Goals to Make Sure they are Achievable and Time-based

•Are these goals realistic to how you work?

•Ultimately what would you like to work up to?

•Can you commit to following this plan for 4 weeks?

•Are you willing to review your progress in 4 weeks?

•*For some this may be sit.

Coaching

Tools

Find an intervention that works for your program

Safety Considerations for Sit to Stand Desks

• Clearance

• Pinch points

• Impulse drive movement

• Collision control feature

• Cord length

• Tripping hazard

• Load/Tipping point

• Turn it off

• Exposed moving components

Questions?

Business

The Phenomenon of Sit-to-Stand Desks