Well, it works for me. For ten years I worked 60-70 hour weeks, mostly on my feet. When I switched from production to post-production, my work situation became much more sedentary. I started using a standing desk two or three years ago and immediately started feeling much less exhausted and sore by the end of the day. Most days I try to spend a few hours sitting and a few hours standing, but on the days I spend all day on my feet, I feel less tired and sore and sick than on those days I spend entirely on my ass. I donāt expect it will actually add years to my life, but god knows I feel better with my new setup,and that also helps improve the quality of my work.
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Probably not given that people have been doing this for centuries. Not sure about the tangible health benefits, but meetings in my office are much shorter at the standing desk. Plus, I can plow through email and other dull tasks while standing, and do creative writing while sitting. I think this is probably here to stay.
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I dunno what hurts more to look at: Ernieās neck as he gazes down at his typewriter, or that godawful pleated skort heās wearing in the other shot.
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Uhmā¦
Maybe this trend isnāt based on hard science but you clearly didnāt do much inquiry either because you have to take some big leaps for this study to relevant.
This article is based on new analysis of old data āResearchers tracked 16 yearsā worth of health data from 5,132 people in the Whitehall II study cohort.ā
A study that started with 35 year olds in 1984!
How many of those people had stationary standing as large part of their daily activities?
Probably not enough for any sort of statistical analysis
In fact the study didnāt look at it. they looked at different kinds of sitting.
āoverall mortality risk for these participants wasnāt influenced by how long they sat or by the kind of sitting.ā
I guess the lazy boy in the 1989 wasnāt less healthy than the office chair or lying on the bed.
So do we know how much healthier it is to sit rather than stand?
No we donāt.
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I like my standing desk. Itās great for cooking when the recipe is on my laptop screen. I also decorated mine with permanent marker. Itās an artistic pursuit that I hope never ends.
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Nah. I just do some CrossFit and drink a coconut water and then everything is hunky-dory. ā¦OH and kale. I eat lots of godamn kale.
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Do you even butter your coffee bruh?
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i sleep just fine, thanks. iām just happy that the full picture is starting to be understood, thatās all.
Careful. You may find yourself having to rent a monkey suit if you keep up this improved quality of work thing.
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Point taken, though this particular āfadā graduated from ādelightful discovery for someā to ācondescending circle-jerkā at some pointā¦
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But in production, werenāt you moving? Or were you standing still on concrete for 60-70 hours a week?
I sat down as instructed and my walking-treadmill has now deposited me on
the floor further from my keyboard than I am able to reach.
Awaiting further instructions.
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LOL. I think you know what show Iām working on now. I donāt foresee a need to press my tux anytime soon.
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Boy, did it vary. One day on The Shining I was standing still in ankle-deep snow in the middle of the night for 20-minute takes, for about six hours straight (and then six more hours after a half-hour lunch). Just to keep elk from wandering into the shot.
There could be some running around, but thereās an awful lot of standing still and silent on set while the cameras are rolling. If youāre lucky, you find an apple box to sit on.
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I work in the field of behavioural studies in the UK, and Iām a member of Sense About Science and the AllTrials campaign. The former seeks to improve the understanding and reporting of science in the media. The latter is trying to get drug companies and others to publish all, and not just some, medical trials.
One of the reasons the drug companies give for not publishing some trials is that these will be mis-reported or interpreted in ways that are misleading to the public and which may therefore cause harm.
When I read articles like the one here on BB about the Whitehall II study, I can see their point. Doctorow has taken a well-conducted and honestly published trial and āspunā it in a most misleading and dishonest way. The study in no way indicates that standing desks are just as bad as sitting. It says nothing about the negative effects of anything that was not sitting or a lack of MVPA (any more than lying down, or indeed any number of specific things you could mention). Furthermore, saying that standing desks arenāt healthier ignores the fact that the trial looked at mortality risk and not other outcomes such as musculoskeletal disorders, for example.
The comments on Doctorowās write up also contain examples of the sort of thing that Sense About Science is trying to do something about: partisan reporting of research eroding public faith in medicine. I see comments here that say things like āIāve been sceptical about X and this proves itā. Such sentiments drive people away from the idea of evidence-based medicine and into the arms of quackery and exploitation by confidence tricksters. With such corrosive reporting as this article, is it any wonder that magazines such as What Doctors Donāt Tell You are popular?
Iām taking the time to write this comment here because I respect Cory Doctorow as someone who might be able to see the points Iām making about his article. This isnāt an attempt to attack BoingBoing and the otherwise good work they do. Writing about medical trials in a way that represents their actual findings is not difficult, and I hope BoingBoing will continue to do it. Just not in this way.
So I remain a happy mutant, only slightly less happy than I was.
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Thanks for this. I wasnāt surprised to see the same overreaching conclusions regarding this study on other blogs. Bummed out to see the same intellectual laziness on boingboing.
ā¦huh?
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Would you say that you are disappointed in Boing Boing and Doctorow?
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Cripes. Iām sorry. I donāt even know what that is or where one might see it. And I hope I donāt stumble onto it.
