TMCnews Featured Article

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re sitting down, which means you’re probably doing damage to your body. According to several reports lately, people who work jobs that involved sitting for long periods of time increase their chances of a heart attack.

A Men’s Health article cited a study in the Medicine & Science’s journal within the Sports & Exercise section that examined the lifestyles of more than 17,000 men and women over 13 years. The report found those who sit for most of the day were 54 percent more likely to die of heart attacks. Another report cited in a recent New York Times Magazine story tracked 123,000 Americans and found the death rate for those who spent six or more hours a day sitting was 20 percent higher.  

Aside from switching occupations, what’s the alternative you ask?

Invest in a standup desk. Right now, standup desks are a small niche in the market, but due to all of the attention around the idea that sitting causes fatal health conditions, the market is quickly growing.

Owner of standupdesks.com Jim Gattuso said that traffic to his website has quadrupled in recent weeks. Up until now, he had still had a profitable business for people with back problems. Gattuso started his business about 17 years ago when he was suffering from back pain and was looking for a standup desk. He couldn’t find one, so he contracted with a furniture maker in Ohio’s Amish country. The furniture maker was willing to make a desk, but he had one stipulation: if he wanted him to build one, Gattuso would have to have at least three pieces made. Gattuso kept two for himself, but decided sell the other one on the Internet and it sold fast, showing him that there was a market for standup desks.

Rob Schwartz, chief creative officer of ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day LA, got a standup desk seven years ago because he heard Ernest Hemingway used one. Physical issues didn’t play a role in Schwartz’s decision, he doesn’t have a bad back and isn’t worried that sitting all day will cause him to have a heart attack.

“You get more done when you’re standing up,” Schwartz said. “When you’re sitting, you’re naturally recessive, you’re receiving, when you’re standing, you’re ready to do something.”

Jon Paulsen, CEO of The Human Solution, which sells ergonomic office furniture, says that, despite the hype, a sit-down desk won’t kill you.

“Sitting is not necessarily a bad thing, but doing anything for eight hours a day is bad,” he said. Paulsen, a certified ergonomist, recommends an electronic retractable desk, which can help you easily go from a sitting to a standing position.

Standup desks aren’t cheap. An electronic retractable desk is about $1,000 to $2,000. If that price is out of your reach, Paulsen advises to get up every half hour and walk around.