Happy fit Friday, everyone! Today, I’m going to talk about something that I, personally, have done at work to help myself stay active….a standing desk. Back story time!After doing some research online, I decided at the beginning of last year to start sitting on a exercise ball while at my desk. Well, a day into it my back started hurting more than usual. After a little more research, I learned that you are only supposed to do this for part of the day because it can cause even more back pain than usual. Well considering I already have a bad back I decided to nix that idea! My next idea was a standing desk. I worked in retail management for 5 years prior to my current job, and if you know anything about retail you know that you stand all day long. Well, I was pretty used to standing all day and thought that if I could stand for most of my day at my current job I would feel so much less lazy! So, I looked online a little more and found a really great “Ikea hack” standing desk. One of the guys in my office actually had this exact same one so I knew that it would work well.
How to make it:
Start with an Ikea “Lack” side table, 2 shelves, and 2 brackets. (You will only need one table if you only have one monitor, but I have my laptop stand and a monitor so I needed two!). Attach the brackets to the lack table, and throw that shelf on up there! It is the perfect set up for me and puts my monitors at a really great height. I am about 5’4″ and my desk is 2’5″ tall for your reference. You could probably be up to about 5′ 8″ or 5’9″ before they would start to be to low at this desk height. You could always remedy that by sticking something underneath the legs to make it taller.
I feel like the standing desk makes me walk around more. Instead of sitting there in my chair when I am thinking, I pace my office. I also like to do some exercises while I am standing there. If you are sitting at a desk all day, you are much less likely to get up, move your chair, and then do exercises, but when you stand all day it just happens. Plus standing still for a while at your desk will make moving around feel great! I’ll be sure to let you in on my Standing desk work out sometime in the near future:)
Well, now that you know how to do it for a great price, there is nothing stopping you from getting a little healthier and building your own standing desk! Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Thanks for reading!
