Standup Desks

Holly Korbey makes some good points in “How Standing Desks Can Help Students Focus in the Classroom” (KQED News, 10-21- 2014):

Benden said they found that children in the study who were overweight or obese burned more calories at the standing desks than their normal-weight peers, a result he found surprising.
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In reality, Benden said it’s not about either sitting or standing all the time, but instead about keeping moving. He wants to spread the “gospel of movement,” where kids and adults understand they need to be up and active, free to move around. For the modern student or office worker, standing for part of a day is a good way to keep moving. “We used to be more active, but over time we got conditioned to being inactive,” Benden said. “It’s not normal, and it’s not how we were intended to be. When schools tell children to sit still and be quiet, you’ve almost wounded them. They want to be wiggling and fidgeting and moving.”
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“Standing can be just as bad as sitting,” Hanscom said about students using standing desks. “From an OT standpoint, it’s still an issue — if you’re just standing, you’re not getting rapid vestibular movement. You need to move your head in all different directions. If you’re standing still, you’re not moving your head left and right.” Until children get meaningful movement, and lots of it — she recommends multiple hours a day, whether in or out of school — their attention will not improve.                  COPYRIGHT © 2015 KQED INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

One should use a standup desk, but not merely to immobilize yourself in a different way than sitting. One should use it to allow for more motion and range of motion.