

The Science Behind the Need to Stand - Results of Take-a-Stand Project - solson
http://www.juststand.org/tabid/756/language/en-US/default.aspx

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scott_s
No description of their methodology. I can surmise some of it from their
results, and things that trigger alarms in my head:

\- All of the metrics are subjective judgements from the participants of how
they feel, and I can only assume the people knew they were participating in
this study because it's hard to hide the fact that you're asked to stand
several times a day. So, placebo effect.

\- No listing of the questions themselves - were they leading?

\- No data on how many people started the study and how many were around at
the end.

Standing instead of sitting may be beneficial, but I don't think this study,
as presented, actually supports that conclusion.

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cstfinside
7 or 8 people got one of these things at my office. and it was a pretty random
assignment (for the record, i wasnt one of them and probably wouldnt have
taken it had i been offered). basically there were a few free ones that were
offered to 8 people (that didnt either ask or not ask for them). but all
accepted. after 1 year, none of the original people that got them still have
them. it took a week for some, a few months for others to give it up but in
the end, everyone did. for some, it was more a function of the "ricketyness"
of the ergotron device. since the whole set up (keyboard, mouse included) has
to be able to move up and down its not very fixed to anything. so it wiggles
and shakes as you type or click. and its bulky, takes up space on your desk,
forces you to put the monitor at the very edge of the desk, killing any room
on your desk for anything else you dont want to reach around a monitor and
giant bar to get to. for all who used it, any benefit of being able to stand
up didnt outweigh these costs. before i saw this ridiculous "study" i disliked
the product. now seeing the "study", i dislike the company. unfortunate.

~~~
solson
I'm the software development director here at Ergotron. We appreciate your
feedback and I will forward this to product development. It will help us
improve our product. About the study, we supplied the product used in the
study, but it was conducted by Health Partners Journey Well and we have no
input on the results. BTW, the detailed results and methodology haven't been
released by Health Parters Journey Well yet. I am told they will release those
details but we don't know when.

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lukifer
I was already pretty sold on the concept, but the infographic definitely
pushed me to make it more of a priority at my workplace. However, this site
seems to be ultimately trying to promote the Ergotron store, yet it took me
way too long to find the tiny Products link at the top.

If you're gonna sell something, sell something. :P

~~~
solson
I'm the software development director here at Ergotron. The purpose of
Juststand.org is to bring awareness to the benefits of standing and the risks
of sitting too much. Will we benefit from that awareness? Yes, we hope so. But
the purpose of the site is not to just simply push our product. On the
products page of juststand.org we link to some competitors products as well as
our own. [http://www.juststand.org/tabid/660/language/en-
US/default.as...](http://www.juststand.org/tabid/660/language/en-
US/default.aspx)

~~~
Todd
I, for one, appreciate what you guys are doing. Kudos for setting up the site
and including competitors' products. We need more stand up products and
studies like this.

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georgieporgie
I'm now at around two months of experimenting with a standing desk made of
2x4's and pine boards.

Despite using a ~28" high stool to vary my foot and leg positions for
stretches and rest, I find that my flexibility has significantly worsened in
specific ways. I do the 'old man groan' when I need to hoist a foot up to pull
on a sock or tie my shoe. I've never done that before. Tension in my lower
back is much higher. My forward bend flexibility is much worse than when I sat
in a chair, despite regular stretching.

My neck feels better (an ongoing issue for a few years), but I have muscle
pain in the left side of my upper back. It's due to some combination of
holding my shoulders back and my arms up, something I never thought would
present a problem. (I left-hand mouse, by the way, which is likely
exacerbating the issue)

I'm a reasonably fit person who visits the gym every other day for about 1.5
hours (30 mins cycling, 1 hr of weight training). In the past, I've been an
avid rock climber, cyclist, and yogi, so I'm fairly well in tune with my
body's flexibility and strength.

Next steps:

1) Play with monitor height even more. I think it's crucial to elevate your
monitor, but my Dell monitor's stand is still keeping it a little too high. I
haven't yet determined the right height to achieve a neutral neck position.

2) Build a better chair. I suspect that support of the elbows and forearms may
be important for shoulder health when it comes to day-in, day-out human-
computer interfacing. I will take a mold of my back and build a chair back
from it, providing lumbar, spine, and elbow support, with nothing to encourage
my shoulders to rotate forward (a persistent problem with every chair I've
had).

