I’ll tell you how I built my desk with IKEA parts. But first, I want to share why I did this – both my personal observations and some research I’ve found – because I think it will help you at the gym. It will also likely heal some of your aches and pains, help you control your weight and may even extend your life. Yes, I believe it’s that important. So please read on.
When I was younger, I worked in physical jobs – outdoor guide, construction, electrician – because I thought an office job would feel confining. As I got older, my interest in building things led to me to a career as a mechanical engineer. And thus began my time in the chair. After I started coaching, I got back to standing more as part of my normal workday, but the job also involves administrative work that has kept me seated for hours every day. I’ve known for a long time that too much sitting makes me antsy. But I really didn’t know the scope of the problem until recently.
One of my go-to sources on anything involving mobility is Kelly Starrett, a physiotherapist and athlete who founded MWOD. Here’s how he put it: “Sitting two hours is the equivalent of smoking two cigarettes. It’s that gnarly.”
I believe him. Here’s one way I can see how sitting effects me: when I’m coaching, I sometimes feel as though standing up properly has become a fight. By that I mean it takes more effort to actually stand up straight, with my hips fully open, my back in a neutral position, and my shoulders erect.
Have any of you experienced this? Does your back hurt? Do your shoulders hunch? Is your head canted forward? Then you’re probably sitting too much.
Even though my job involves lots of standing, and even though I work out and hike and climb, that’s still not enough to counteract the perils of excessive sitting.
“A kinked high-tension system”
As an engineer, I like to look at how the parts of the body work together. Standing, your body is like a tower and your musculature and connective tissues are like cables holding it upright. When you sit, you’re shortening some cables and lengthening others. Your entire body alignment changes.
Starrett says that by sitting down, “what you’ve done is you’ve made this tight, kinked, high-tension system.” You’re putting curves, angles and compression forces where they don’t really belong long-term.
“Think about a folded piece of paper – the crease doesn’t magically disappear when you unfold it. Now think about the enormous amount of practice you’re getting in this folded position.”
Last fall, I had the opportunity to meet with Starrett and his wife, Juliet, to talk about this. He went down the line from head to toe: Sitting, your shoulders are hunched. Your head is drooping. There’s more pressure on your diaphragm. “You’re practicing stress breathing,” Starrett noted. Your hips aren’t open so the muscles are shortened. Your ankles are likely extended, never flexed. Your pelvis is tilted. “You basically shut off the pelvic floor,” he noted. You’re not using the legs and glutes, the biggest muscles in your body, at all.
In short, you’re in a weak position from your head to your toes.
Practice makes (im)perfect
So what’s the big deal? Think about a folded piece of paper – the crease doesn’t magically disappear when you unfold it. Now think about the enormous amount of practice you’re getting in this folded position. Eight hours a day at a minimum.
The truth is, we sit more than we do almost anything else. One of my former CrossFit coaches, Dave Werner, recently calculated that by the time a person gets through college and grad school, they’ve accumulated 20,000 hours of sitting. That’s like sitting down and not standing up again for 2 years three months, by his estimation. Twenty years of office work amounts to 40,000 hours of sitting. And that’s not counting time in front of the TV or eating dinner or any of the other times we sit.
It’s kind of scary to think about. Because sitting gets our bodies accustomed to, well, sitting.
The effects I felt – and that you can actually see
If you’re “practicing” for eight+ hours a day in that creased, closed position, over time it will be a lot harder to fully open your hips when you stand up. That’s what I noticed happening to me. Here’s one way to see if it’s happening to you: Look at your belt buckle in the mirror. If it’s angled down even a few degrees, that’s a sign your pelvis is tipped forward and that your hips aren’t open. Often, people subconsciously try to correct that pelvic tilt by arching their lower back – what Starrett calls the “banana curve.” Lower back pain is usually the next step.
“Look at your belt buckle in the mirror. If it’s angled down even a few degrees, that’s a sign your pelvis is tipped forward and that your hips aren’t open.”
Beyond pain, that permanent hip crease and back curve also affects performance. The Starretts have shown how that hip fold leads to poor running mechanics, including heel striking (check out his book, Ready to Run) Your trunk muscles get weaker from sitting, too, because most people (erroneously) shut off their trunk musculature when they sit. When you do that, you’re practicing having a weak trunk, which isn’t good for anything. Compromised hip function means your squat also is going to suffer – and the squat is fundamental not only to CrossFit, but to normal life.
Here’s a test: look around at how your gym mates squat. Is everyone able to get their butt to their heels? Can they even get below parallel? Does their trunk tilt forward instead of staying upright? All those things are signs of problems. If I’ve ever told you to “go deeper,” you’re in that category. Some people say they can’t. I say, you may not be able to now, but if you work on it, you will improve.
“Muscles and tissues are like obedient dogs,” Starrett has said. “You just have to have the will. They will change.”
The Starretts have convinced their clients, including military groups and elite athletes, to get standing desks. And in time, many of their mechanical faults went away. They even bought standing desks for their daughter’s 4th grade class. They believe it will not only help the kids physically, but mentally, as well.
Wait – does it really matter if you can squat butt to heels?
Maybe you don’t have any aches and pains. Maybe you’re satisfied with your athletic performance. But too much sitting is linked to even bigger stuff than that – stuff that can literally take years off your life. This is true even if you’re getting regular exercise.
Studies have repeatedly shown this. Another one of my go-to sources, Chris Kresser, wrote a good article on this. To summarize, excessive sitting is associated with weight gain, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease. If you sit for long periods, it decreases the activity of enzymes that help burn fat. Your “good” cholesterol drops. Insulin becomes harder to regulate, and your risk of developing Type II diabetes increases. Your caloric burn is a third of what you would burn walking. Juliet Starrett figured that if she switched to a standing desk, she would burn 100,000 more calories a year.
“It’s not a few people are having some issues from sititng,” she said. “Sitting is a major public health crisis.
Even small changes add up
I sit, and I will continue to sit. But even small changes will really add up over time.
Here’s what I mean:
• Work as much as you can on hip mobility. One way is to couch stretch. And by that I mean every single day more than a minute per side. Here’s an article on the topic with many useful exercises.
• Stop sitting so much. I realize a lot of you have no choice but to sit for work. But get up and walk around as much as you can. Walk over and talk to a colleague instead of emailing. Take a break and stretch at your desk. Take a break and squat for a few minutes. (Yes, a few minutes) Do this in front of the TV, too.
• Get a standing desk so you don’t even have to think about it. I built my own with an IKEA hack, complete with a slide-out tray for my keyboard. And while it took some getting-used-to, I’m glad I did it. Best of all, it’s easy. If you want to copy, I’ll walk you through it. One thing to remember is that you’ll also need a small stool to rest your foot on periodically.
Bill Pappas is head coach and owner at Jet City CrossFit, Seattle, WA
