I ordered a Flexispot standing desk from Amazon that arrived not long ago. The size is OK I guess but it does take up a lot of space of the desk. It had to be fairly large because I have a 32" display. There isn’t a huge amount of space for the mouse, which is disappointing.
It is not quite as stable as I had hoped considering all the rave reviews but I’ll probably get used to it. The movement up and down is very smooth and easy with a simple hand lever that feels well controlled.
In addition, I picked up an anti-fatigue mat for standing that is supposed to reduce foot strain. Time will tell how it works out I guess. Ideally I think you would have two displays with enough room space, so one was always ready for sitting and the other standing with less moving around.
At least this gets you out of the chair. I am curious to see if it will impact productivity either positively or negatively.
No real wobble at all when down low, however there is some when it is raised. It bothered me a bit at first but you sort of get used it and there is never a sense that anything is going to collapse.
This was a relatively cheap buy, costing around $150, so a more expensive alternative might be better. I suspect various factors apply here, such as positioning on the table etc. This is not perfectly central, because of the other display on the left taking up space.
I have largely negated the lack of space in the mouse area by bumping up the tracking speed in the mouse settings of system preferences, so I physically move the mouse less now. This has even allowed me to place a wrist pad in front of the mouse to reduce potential RSI from resting your wrists on the hard edge.
NB. Another little trick to help with that is to grab a couple egg shaped stress balls and squeeze them for a few seconds every now and then.
If you are used to sitting all the time you will want to ease you way in to standing while working, starting with maybe half an hour at a time, then working up. A big positive I have found is that I am generally more concentrated and focussed when standing, so I tend to get more done. You have to be a little bit careful of not locking your knees by frequently changing your position slightly and adding a good anti-fatigue mat under your feet is a really good idea.
Some of this may sound over the top, especially if you are relatively healthy, but it’s your work space and if you stop working or become unproductive due to aches and strains, everything stops. Your longterm health is also important. Aches and pains can creep up slowly, but then become long lasting. Making time for a brisk half hour walk at least once a day should be considered a minimum as well.
Gaming chairs support a similar function as something like an office chair, which is longer sitting sessions. However, I suggest doing your research as not all gaming chairs are made equally. It’s also possible your paying for the “flashiness” of the gaming chair, and not getting adequate support for a given price point you could get with a more traditional office chair.
The other suggestion I read is investing in a chair with adjustable armrests, the rest of the features should be more to your liking (like support for leaning back). Armrests will allow you to be more flexible with your own setup, where you can rest your elbows on the armrests, or adjust them lower than the table, get closer and use the table as your armrest. Having that flexibility is always nice.
A similar discussion recently took place in a forum of type designers. The focus was more on chairs, but there is a number of other useful information:
That’s actually a very good discussion and curious to read that so many of them are using Aearon chairs, which I had never heard of before.
One point made was the simple, but effective value of daily exercise and I find that makes a huge difference. If I manage to do some daily yoga stretches, along with aerobic exercise like being on a step machine for at least half an hour, the lower back ache and stiffness seems to vanish. Two days of sitting or even mixed sitting/standing without that exercise and it soon returns.
The traditional web developer’s sitting position doesn’t help either:
A standing desk and a quality chair is vital. I spent a fair bit of money on both. Good investments.
Also, this year I started swimming 4 mornings a week. Man what a noticeable difference in movement and flexibility, as @Flashman mentions, doing something that gets you moving is just as important to include. Get an Apple Watch and close the rings.
Spending long hours of work at a desk catches up with you. I’ve actually reduced my work hours and it’s been worth it.
At the time I was looking a few years back, there were a handful of options and growing, but I wound up going the big $ route with uplift. ( https://www.upliftdesk.com ). No regrets other than choking on the cost as I did a 5" curved front primary and a non-lift side section to build an L, but also ($$) keyboard tray, filling cabinet, under-desk drawer, etc.
I’d been working remotely ~90% of the time for years pre-COVID, so it made sense to make my home office where I was 90% or more of the time other than rare in-office or travel - as efficient as possible, so it was a ‘Xmas present from me to me’ one year.
Someone at the office did do one of the larger ‘sit on top of desk’ arrangements and it wasn’t bad, but it does depend on your monitor/display size and stability as to how well that will work. There are obviously numerous DIY options out there now - I might consider getting a frame from and motor, then using uplift for the desk surface today (I do like the curved front center section).
Note - the desk is only part of the equation - if you’re sitting on a crap chair, well - it’s not going to help. Looong ago we had Herman Miller Aerons at a startup and I wound up buying one for home - it still surprisingly holds up, although I since have purchased an Ergohumn chair - there are lots of knockoffs and possibly some of them are solid like the various game chairs, although expect to have to replace the hydraulic cylinder on many of the cheaper ones - my Aaron cylinder is going on 15 years now, and my ergohuman chair is around 8 years old with many 16+ hour days on both of them.
As someone said, make SURE your cables are both long enough AND unobstructed/have a clear path as you move the desk up and down.
