standing computer desks

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To make a long story short, thanks to an injury last year, I have some neck and back problems that make it painful for me to sit for long periods. Unfortunately, since I work in an office environment, I spend a lot of time sitting in front of a computer monitor, aggravating my musculoskeletal pain all day long and it's not cool.

I was looking into desks that allow you to stand while working, but they are expensive and, as an alternative, my employer is considering building me some sort of adaptation to my current desk that will allow me to stand while using my computer. (One of my nonprofit's programs is a construction company, so we have some skilled carpenters on our payroll).

I'm trying to make a referral to be seen by an occupational therapist, so they can make recommendations on dimensions from an ergonomics perspective, but I was just curious if anyone else has ever tried rigging up something like this for themselves and, if so, if they'd have suggestions.

Or, if anyone has a standing computer desk that was affordable and that they'd recommend, I might be interested in hearing about that, too. (Depending on what my employer comes up with and if I can find something pre-made that's reasonably priced, I might just invest in one and, if I ever leave the company, take it with me for future use).

I'm not a professional (sadly, it's true), but would walking in any way be comfortable for you? Just for an idea: treadmills have been built with a desks attached for exercise, therapy, or to just stop people from being lazy. It could be a good form of therapy, or it could makeyour issue worse. Try doing some research, and see what you find.

Wish ya luck!

Here you go. You can thank me later.

Standing Computer Desk

I'm trying to find or make something that would work for a PC. Sorry, I guess I should have mentioned that. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

I always leave something out of my posts

The desks are full-size. it's not like a small table on top of the treadmill, if that's what your thinking. I seen a man who had neck and back problems like yourself, and he used the bottom of a treadmill under his desk; added a regular sized desk, and then did a couple of changes to the regular desk to fit his needs. He lost a lot of pounds, and he even had an office job at the time. I'm sorry if I incompleted my previous post.

I've thought about getting (or building) an office desk that I could use comfortably standing up. And then for if I wanted to sit, some kind of tall stool.

It never made it past the thinking stage, though.

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19910888:

These days, I spend far too much time sitting at my desk.

I've never used one, but it sounds like a good idea. It would probably help with my fidgeting, plus it is healthier.

It looks like this one could hold a desktop PC, if you put the tower in the bottom part, assuming you have a flat-screen monitor. However, the desk area isn't big enough for much else besides keyboard and mouse.

This one is a lot more expensive, but looks like it has a larger workspace.

This website has some nice products that go on top of your desk, but they are also quite expensive.

If you are willing to put out the money, this company some full adjustable desks.

I like the idea of building something to go on top of your existing desk. That is probably the easiest and cheapest solution. Of course, it might not be as comfortable if you did decide to get a stool to sit at when your feet get tired, because your knees would bump into the original desk unless the desk add-on was designed to avoid that.

http://www.amazon.com/Safco-1929CY-Adju ... puter+desk

Stand up work station. I saw this when looking at RedRobin's link.

On second thought, have you thought about just getting a high table like one of these?

Come to think of it, I remember reading an article about one of the big animation companies. In the article, they mentioned that one of their animators worked entirely at a standup desk. There were no chairs in his office.

I worked on some projects where we collected data on hospital wards. We used a hospital computer trolley that had an upright with two separately adjustable platforms, one for the display and one for the keyboard. The wheels had foot-lockable brakes to fix the location when in use. An occupational therapist set the heights of each platform, to eye-line and to elbow height for whoever was using it. The bulk of the PC went in a lockable cabinet. The whole lot was rated for the weight of CRT monitors, so well able to cope with recent PCs.

A USB or wireless keyboard will improve the height separation if you use a laptop. A trackball is often preferable to a mouse - it doesn't use as much space, or involve arm movement.

This is the kind of thing: http://www.scott-clark.com/ http://www.freewaymedical.co.uk/index.php?id=336

Here's an office cubical with a nice setup for standing or sitting:



I have seen tables in libraries with computers on them in which the tables were high enough that it was quite comfortable to stand there to use the computers. In fact, there were no chairs near them and the tables were too tall for anything resembling a normal chair. Of course, the computers were there strictly to be used to search the library's collections.

I've also been in computer rooms that had tall desks with manuals on them so that you could look up things in the manual while standing up.

One thing I always liked was the old architect chairs and tables. The chairs were taller than most and somewhat comfortable. The angles of the tables were highly adjustable. Something similar to this:



By the way, in my office, I have four office desks and one computer desk. It would be nice to swap one of them out for one to work while standing up. Even better if the angle of the top could be adjusted.