1.
The phenomenon of
sit to stand desks
• Key reasons companies are investing in sit
to stand desks
• How long should employees sit and stand
• How to get users to use the desk
• Basic safety issues

2.
Key reasons companies are
investing in sit to stand desks

3.
Design to fit the worker.
1.

4.
Office chairs adjust to fit
key body dimensions:

5.
"Any fixed posture, no matter how closely
it approaches the optimal, will generate
muscle fatigue."
The key is to move more and give your
body rest intervals throughout the day.

6.
Reduce Risk Factors.
2.

7.
Avoid risk factors:
Increased risk of
injury and added
strain on body
Goal:
Maintain comfort and
productivity and avoid injury
Role of EHAWs:
Quick and easy adjustments as
needed
Awkward posture Neutral posture Adjust to personal specifications
Repetition Rest and neutral posture Help getting body in neutral posture
to minimize injury risk
Extended reaching Things used most should be
closest
Adjust to task
Contact stress Avoid compression of body Adjust desk to avoid compression
Prolonged static
loading
Avoid static muscle fatigue
through motion and rest
Avoid too much sitting or too much
standing by alternating between sit
and stand.
How do EHAWs tie into an ergonomics program?:

8.
Your body naturally
knows when it is time
to move.

9.
When you sit for long periods of time the
muscles become fatigued, which cause an
antsy, anxious feeling that induces the
need to exercise muscles.

10.
Movement is a natural response to
alleviate anxiety and static muscle
fatigue.

11.
Sitting for too long is not good
• Static muscle fatigue
• Increased spinal muscular activity and
intradiscal pressure
• Increased muscle loading in the neck and
shoulder muscles
• Decreased muscle activity resulting in pain
and/or spasms
• Retention of fat
• Lower levels of good cholesterol
• Overall reduction in the metabolic rate
New studies
have shown:

12.
Standing for too long is not good
• Static muscle fatigue
• Sore feet
• Swelling of the legs
• Varicose veins
• Low back pain
• Stiffness in the neck and shoulders

13.
“Alternating between sit and stand positions
adjusts the amount of load on the body
allowing for increased rest intervals of specific
body parts, thus reducing the adverse impact
of risk factors.” 3

14.
Identify the risk factors:

15.
Identify the risk factors:

16.
More efficient utilization of space
for facility management.
3.

17.
Company image and
employee benefit
4.

18.
Wellness: The quest for
healthy employees.
5.

19.
Inactivity is a driver of obesity and poor health.
Obesity is a risk factor for disease.
Disease is a cause of absenteeism and
increased healthcare expenditures.
.
Sit-stand desks can break-up inactivity

20.
Obesity trends in the United States

21.
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 1985
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)
No Data <10% 10%–14%

22.
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 1987
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4”
person)
No Data <10% 10%–14%

23.
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 1990
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)
No Data <10% 10%–14%

24.
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 1993
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)
No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19%

25.
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 1995
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)
No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19%

26.
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 1998
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)
No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% ≥20%

27.
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 1999
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)
No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% ≥20%

28.
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 2002
No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% 20%–24% ≥25%

29.
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 2004
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)
No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% 20%–24% ≥25%

30.
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 2007
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)
No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% 20%–24% 25%–29% ≥30%

31.
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 2009
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)
No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% 20%–24% 25%–29% ≥30%

32.
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 2010
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)
No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% 20%–24% 25%–29% ≥30%

33.
Obesity Trends* Among U.S. Adults
BRFSS, 2010
(*BMI ≥30, or ~ 30 lbs. overweight for 5’ 4” person)
No Data <10% 10%–14% 15%–19% 20%–24% 25%–29% ≥30%

34.
32%
The percent of Americans the CDC report are
obese in 2012.2
2. ABC15 News “CDC predicts 42-percent of Americans will be obese by 2030, 5/8/2012
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/now/CDC-predicts-42-percent-of-Americans-will-be-obese-by-
2030#ixzz24Ngvns6b

35.
42%
The percent of Americans that the most recent
CDC report predicts will be obese by 2030.2
2. ABC15 News “CDC predicts 42-percent of Americans will be obese by 2030, 5/8/2012
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/now/CDC-predicts-42-percent-of-Americans-will-be-obese-by-
2030#ixzz24Ngvns6b

36.
How do these obesity trends
impact the workplace?

37.
Obesity trends and how they are impacting
the work environment.
1. Could you stand to Lose, Mark E Benden, Ph.D., CPE
x10
the number of lost work days and health care
dollars that obese workers cost companies when
compared to their normal weight peers.1

38.
Obesity trends and how they are impacting
the work environment.
1. Could you stand to Lose, Mark E Benden, Ph.D., CPE
+13
The additional work days lost to work-related
injuries and illnesses by obese workers (over their
non-obese counterparts).1

39.
Obesity trends and how they are impacting
the work environment.
1. Could you stand to Lose, Mark E Benden, Ph.D., CPE
x7
The additional cost of medical costs verses
average workplace-related claims.1

40.
Obesity trends and how they are impacting
the work environment.
1. Could you stand to Lose, Mark E Benden, Ph.D., CPE
x2
The likely hood of an obese employee filing a
work-related claim verses another employee.1

41.
Obesity trends and how they are impacting
the work environment.
Source: National Public Radio
$73,000,000,000
The resulting obesity-related costs to U.S.
businesses.1

42.
9 out of 10 people die from four largely
preventable diseases: diabetes, heart disease,
cancer and lung disease.
“Eat, Move, Sleep” Tom Rath

43.
The correlation between activity and obesity.

44.
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)
Activity (exercise and
non-exercise activity)
The three ways our body burns calories:

45.
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
The three ways our body burns calories:
The minimum amount of energy required to
keep your body functioning, including your
heart beating, lungs breathing, and body
temperature normal.

46.
Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)
The three ways our body burns calories:
Calories burned when you are digesting food.
Depends on quantity and composition of the
food ingested

47.
Activity exercise
non-exercise activity
The three ways our body burns calories:

48.
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
The three ways our body burns calories:
Activity (exercise/non-exercise activity)
Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)

49.
Male
210 lbs
6’0’’
Age 45
3419
3072
2725
2379
3767
Extra Heavy
(hard exercise 6-7 days/wk + physical job or extra training)
Sedentary(little or no exercise)
Light (light exercise 1-3 days/wk)
Moderate (moderate exercise 3-5 days/wk)
Heavy(hard exercise 6-7 days/wk)

50.
What is considered sedentary?
People who walk fewer than 5,500 steps.
Average American gets 5,117 steps a day.
What should it be?
That depends on the individual and calorie consumption. A good
target for overall health is 10,000 steps a day.
“Eat, Move, Sleep” Tom Rath

51.
Main drivers of obesity:
• Sedentary Lifestyle
• Increased Calorie
Consumption

52.
Chicken Caesar Salad with dressing
and a 12oz Coke
Calories: 1,153
Mixed Vegetable Salad with light tuna,
half an avocado and 6 Tablespoons
reduced fat Italian dressing, whole
grain roll, water
Calories: 509
The thin line between a 1,600- and 3,000-calorie day
Source: Los Angeles Times called “Weight loss: The thin line between a 1,600- and 3,000-calorie day”

53.
http://www.onlineuniversity.net/work-is-murder/
When you sit your calorie
burning slows to 1 calorie
per minute.

54.
“Eat, Move, Sleep” Tom Rath
20%
After two hours of sitting your good
cholesterol drops by 20 percent.

55.
http://www.onlineuniversity.net/work-is-murder/
x2
People with sedentary jobs are
twice as likely to die from heart
disease than those with active jobs.

56.
Long periods of sitting spike blood
sugar and insulin levels
“In experimental settings, even two minutes
of leisurely walking every 20 minutes was
enough to stabilize blood sugar levels.”
“Eat, Move, Sleep” Tom Rath

57.
Reduced Life Expectancy
A large scale study of 650,000 adults showed active lifestyles
yield a longer life expectancy (regardless of how much you
weigh).
People who were both obese and inactive lost about 7 years of
life. Even 10 minutes of walking a day was associated with a
gain of almost 2 years in life expectancy.
http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Dec2012/Feature1

58.
.4 Move a Little, Lose a Lot
Save $76.6 billion
The number we could reduce our yearly medical
costs by if the 88 million sedentary people in the
United States would increase their moderate
activity level.4

59.
A study with kids showed a 20%
increase in test scores after two
months of integrating standing into
their day.
Also, the kids related to each other
better, were less stressed and had
more energy.
Sensors showed the children had
doubled their activity.
http://time.com/sitting/

60.
Mayo Clinic Study – Dr. James Levine
•Every food item the participants
ate was served in the lab and
precisely measured along with all
of their movements.
•1,000 extra calories a day for
two months

61.
Mayo Clinic – overfeeding studies
Weight gain varied by person.
One person gained less than one
pound and another gained 14
pounds. The rest fell in between.
The result:

62.
Why the large fluctuation in weight gain
between participants?

63.
The result was that the difference
between the obese and their lean peers
came down to one thing –
general daily activity.

64.
2.5
The obese volunteers sat planted for a full 2.5
hours a day longer than the lean volunteers who
stood, walked and fidgeted that much longer.

65.
Some people are naturally hardwired to
move in a response to food intake –
subconsciously they move
more to make up for added calorie
consumption.

66.
N.E.A.T.
(non-exercise activity thermogenesis)

67.
• Inconsequential movements accumulate
rapidly throughout the day and have a
positive impact on our health and well-being.

68.
When we sit the enzymes that are
responsible for burning fat just shut down.
Sitting too long slows our metabolism.

69.
But there is much more benefit from moving and
standing more than calorie burn and a higher
metabolism …
- Decreased blood pressure
- Decreased risk of stroke, heart failure, and
diabetes.
- Increased life expectancy

70.
• Exercising 30 minutes a day is not enough
to offset the damage that can be done by
sitting too long everyday.
• Getting enough movement and avoiding
sitting to long is vital to good health
The Conclusion of the Research:

71.
• Even those who were exercising more than 7 hours a week
had a 50% greater risk of death if they spent more than 7
hours a day sitting.
• They doubled their odds of dying from heart disease.
• Exercise helps, but does not offset several hours of sitting.
Supporting Study: Evaluation of 240,000 Adults over a Decade
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22218159

72.
Super-fit astronauts go into
space and become rapidly
less healthy by living
without gravity.
Those who are bed-ridden
or are inactive in general
have very similar ailments.

73.
The good news – astronauts can repair
the deteriorated health that occurs
when the body is not working against
gravity and restore their health by
returning to active life on Earth.

74.
Getting people to stand and move
can combat the effects of zero
gravity and restore health and slow
down the aging process.

75.
60%
of our skeletal muscles are devoted to
opposing gravity.
The best strength-training exercise relies on
you supporting or lifting your own body weight,
thus working against the force of gravity.

76.
More Stimuli
Every time you stand up almost every nerve in the body is
stimulated. This is good for you.
If you stand up 16 times a day for two minutes, the body
would read that as 16 stimuli, whereas if you stood once and
remained standing for 32 minutes, it would only see that as
one.

77.
Increased fat
Inactivity with reduced or eliminated small, frequent movements
interferes with sugar and fat metabolism.
Deprived of the daily challenge of gravity, the metabolism of both
astronauts in space and volunteers in bed is changed, with fat
accumulating to replace lost muscle.

78.
“Standing up often is what matters,
not how long you remain standing.”
Joan Vernikos recommends a natural lifestyle of constant,
natural movement that resists the force of gravity.
Specifically, she recommends the act of going from sitting to
standing and back again between 30-35 times a day.

79.
How long should
people stand?

80.
• Mixing sitting and standing throughout
your work day is ideal.
• If you are sitting most of the day, try to
mix in at least 15 minutes of standing
every hour.
• Even better stand for 10 minutes every 30
minutes.
• Design a program that is realistic to the
worker

81.
2/3
The number of workers that eat lunch at
their desk.
“Eat, Move, Sleep” Tom Rath

82.
We have engineered movement out of our
work day so basically it is up to us to design it
back in a way that is efficient.

83.
Sitting and standing
throughout the workday is a
change from how many
people have worked their
entire lives.

84.
How do we support this
workstyle change with
employees?

85.
Training
Why to use the desk and how to use
the desk for THEM.

86.
Setting Specific, Measurable Goals
•How long can you commit to standing* each work day?
•How many different times are you willing to stand*?
•Why do you want to do this? What do you think you will gain?
Reviewing Goals to Make Sure they are Achievable and Time-based
•Are these goals realistic to how you work?
•Ultimately what would you like to work up to?
•Can you commit to following this plan for 4 weeks?
•Are you willing to review your progress in 4 weeks?
•*For some this may be sit.
Coaching

87.
Tools
Find an intervention that works for
your program

88.
Safety Considerations for
Sit to Stand Desks

89.
• Clearance
• Pinch points
• Impulse drive movement
• Collision control feature

90.
• Cord length
• Tripping hazard
• Load/Tipping point
• Turn it off
• Exposed moving
components

91.
Questions?