Source: Sitting and Standing — Cornell University Ergonomics Web

This article is brief and to the point, and probably deserves to be printed out and used as a constant reminder of how we can ruin our health thanks to long sessions sitting at our computers. As someone who sits at his desk for up to 14–15 hours a day, and manages to do very little exercise, I’m of course worried about health-related complications caused by this sedentary lifestyle and I’m trying to do something about it before it’s too late.

I’ve decided to link to this not only as a reminder to fellow ‘long-sitters’, but also because it warns against another practice which seems increasingly popular: the standing desk. I never thought that a workstation where you basically stand all day was in any way better than sitting at a desk all the time. I’m not a doctor or expert in ergonomics, but to me ‘standing workstation’ always suggested ‘leg fatigue and blood circulation issues’. Well, it’s true:

But, standing to work has long known to be problematic, it is more tiring, it dramatically increases the risks of carotid atherosclerosis (ninefold) because of the additional load on the circulatory system, and it also increases the risks of varicose veins, so standing all day is unhealthy. The performance of many fine motor skills also is less good when people stand rather than sit. 

The bottom line is: Sit to do computer work … then every 20 minutes stand for 2 minutes AND MOVE.

(via this tweet by Josh Sharp)