Well! Some of you may know I courageously bought a rise-and-fall standing desk contraption to go on top of my home office desk.
This was after a period of recurring calf strains, and one of my strategies for strengthening my calf was to stand more while working.
So off I went to research, asking here on the forums, looking into which contraptions got good reviews, and then putting a TRAINING PLAN together!
Yes, you heard right! Standing needs a training plan! At least for me, the office huncher, who has had less and less opportunities to stand whilst doing my day to day work. So when reading into it, I realised there was advice to slowly build up your period of standing. The suggestion is to start with a proportion of 1 to 3, standing a third of the time that one would do sitting. But also building up the duration.
And with those desktop-spring-driven rise-and-fall contraptions, it is surprisingly easy to to lift and lower the platform on which my laptop and monitor stand. Initially I had worried that it would wobble, whilst raising it or unstable whilst in the up position. But I was so pleasantly surprised by how stable it is.
So I put a plan together, knowing I needed to build up to my initial goal of standing for 30 minutes and alternating with sitting.
★ Week 1: 5 min standing // 15 min sitting
★ Week 2: 7 min standing // 20 min sitting
★ Week 3: 10 min standing // 30 min sitting
★ Week 4: 20 min standing // 30 min sitting
★ Week 5: 30 min standing // 30 min sitting
I am now 3 weeks in, still doing 7/20 but having started with 10/30.
I have set up my Runkeeper app with these “training” intervals, so Runkeeper’s voice tells me when to do “slow” (sitting) and when to do “fast” (standing). After having worked this way for the morning (or afternoon), I stop my Runkeeper session without saving it (as it would then upload to Strava).
And here are some insights I have found from doing this:
★ it is surprisingly easy to get into the rhythm of this, and I have found I’m looking forward to the next standing session
★ I sense (but this is difficult to measure) that I am more alert and can focus even better (I never had a problem with focusing, so it's difficult to measure what “focussing more” means, but it just feels like that
★ standing at meetings is particularly useful
★ I think my calves are changing because of this, and I have not had any tight calves even when walking a lot when I was at a 2-day event in London last week
So I will see how it progresses, but for now, it feels like this is a game-changer!
I also realised that the spring-loaded desktop contraption is a better choice for me than changing completely to a rise-and-fall electric standing desk. I had the good fortune of trying one out when I was on a fellowship at a university in Finland, where they had these as standard staff desks. But the rising and falling took quite long when electrically supported.
My spring-loaded desk on the other hand, is quick. I stand up, take hold of the desk on both sides, releasing the lever at the same time, and just help it along a bit as it floats upwards. Similarly, when it’s time to fall down, I grab the desk on both sides, releasing the lever, and gently push it down, with a gentle pressure. Nothing too hard.
Needless to say, I love it!
So week 3 of my 5-week STEFFING plan, and upwards and downwards and onwards I go!
Happy STEFFING, if you are!
How do I overcome the embarrassment of exercising in public?