The internet is flooded with reports on how sitting is slowly killing you, how it is the new smoking, and people who sit all day are deliberately pushing themselves into the mouth of death. A concept that emerged long ago but was fueled enough during the pandemic was the 'negative impacts of sitting all day' whether for work, TV, gaming, or tasks a person performs throughout the day.
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Hence with such findings came up several solutions to fight the negative impacts of sitting, such as feeling lazy after being in the chair all day, thigh pain after sitting for a long time, or aching back, which is a story of every other office worker who spends a portion of their day in front of the screen. And one of the most effective solutions to help with sitting pains is the standing desk. Studying the impacts of standing vs. sitting desks, standing desks became the game changer in a workplace, gaming station, or even something as common as a cash register. But what exactly is a standing desk, and how to use it for productivity improvement? The straightforward answer is by sticking to the 20-8-2 rule!
The 20-8-2 rule is a standing desk schedule designed to divide your work day between sitting, standing, and moving around to keep our bodies active and fueled throughout the day. If you are also curious to know about and implement the 20-8-2 standing desk rule in your life, then read below.
What is the 20-8-2 Rule?
The human body should practice various postures throughout the day to ensure no body part goes under much stress for a prolonged period. The 20-8-2 rule is a similar method designed to promote body movements and divide a healthy amount of time into various types of healthy postures. It is often used for people who own a standing desk, but anyone can implement this simple rule in their routine and reap its benefits. The rule states dividing every half hour into three sections. It starts by spending the first 20 minutes sitting in a comfortable chair, sofa, or anything that doesn't damage the body ergonomically. Then, those 20 minutes is the 8 minute time span where one stands and continues their task. After 8 minutes of working on a standing desk or standing position, 2 minutes are dedicated to moving around.
The 20-8-2 rule's overarching objective is to discourage prolonged sitting and sedentary postures. On the other hand, standing or walking for an extended period might harm health. This 20-8-2 rule aids in achieving equilibrium and bringing about a balance between sitting, standing, and walking.
Benefits of the 20-8-2 Rule in a Workplace
The main intention behind forming the 20-8-2 rule is to fight the negative impacts of sitting all day long. Sitting is hazardous to health in many ways. It impacts a person mentally by tiring them earlier and physically by giving rise to several muscle and joint pains. People who spend more than 8 hours in a chair daily are at a greater risk of developing permanent sitting-related diseases. Hence, this rule aims to promote body movement throughout the day in tiny sessions that neither feel uncomfortable nor overwhelming. Here are some benefits of implementing the 20-8-2 rule in a workplace
Metabolism
Constant body movements and activity promote the rate of metabolism. Faster metabolism aids with quicker digestion hence less chance of developing diseases like high blood sugar and obesity.
Improved Energy Levels
Don't you feel drained after spending the whole day in front of the screen sitting on a chair, no matter how padded or comfortable it is? With 2 minutes of moving around, walking, brisk movement, or even stretching planned every 28 minutes, you can restore your energy levels better and get more done in less time.
Improved Focus
When you constantly shift your position, you prevent your body from falling asleep, and the muscles remain active too. This keeps your mind from zoning off and helps improve concentration too.
Improved Blood Circulation
A sedentary lifestyle leads to a slower heart rate; hence lesser blood is pumped to the lower body. Which, in rise, weakens the lower body muscles and makes them numb. With scheduled movements between sitting, standing, and moving, the heart rate is regulated, and blood is pumped properly throughout the body.
Improved Posture
It is inevitable to slump or slouch in a chair when sitting in the same position for too long. And as you are deep into work, it becomes hard to maintain a healthy posture consciously. The 20-8-2 rule helps fight poor posture and ensures your body maintains an upright working position throughout the day.
When Can I Implement the 20-8-2 Rule?
The 20-8-2 rule is not just limited to office workers but can be implemented for anyone with a sedentary lifestyle. This rule aims to promote a healthy transition towards using a standing desk and minimizing the time spent sitting throughout the day. Rather than just asking to completely and instantaneously shift towards a standing desk, with the 20-8-2 rule, it becomes easier to make this transition. Hence because of being user-friendly, this rule can be used by anyone. Here are some people who can benefit from this rule:
- Office workers
- Gamers
- Students
- While watching TV
- While doing household chores
How to Use a Standing Desk Properly?
A standing desk moves in the right direction, but that doesn't mean you must sit all day. A standing desk has to be scheduled evenly with an ergonomic chair to help fight back pain, laziness, and pain in the back of the thigh when sitting. Although with the help of an ergonomic chair, sitting pains are less likely to take a serious turn, it is ideal to arrange your work day around healthy sitting-standing-moving habits. Below are some simple tips to help easily accommodate the 20-8-2 rule of standing desk in your life.
- Every hour, refill your water bottle or get up to take a file to the colleague
- Hold a walking lunch meeting or take a stroll for lunch.
- When taking a call, prefer walking instead of sitting on the chair
- Maintain an ergonomic sitting posture when in a chair
- Count your steps with your or a pedometer, aiming for 5,000&#;10,000 daily.
- Observe the 20-8-2 formula. Lie down for 20 minutes, get up, and move around for 8 minutes.
- Instead of just texting or emailing chat to a coworker in person rather than over .
- Every hour while working, set a timer or alarm to remind you to stand up, stretch, or do something active.
Story highlights
A recent study finds that standing -- even without moving around -- can have health benefits
Spending more time upright could increase productivity as well as make you healthier
CNN
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You might want to stand up for this. A growing amount of research suggests that just standing &#; even if you don&#;t walk around &#; can have health benefits.
A recent study in Australia found that participants who spent time more standing and moving in the course of a week, based on a sensitive monitor adhered to their thigh, had lower levels of blood sugar and cholesterol. The benefits were even greater, and including reductions in body-mass index and waist circumference, among those who took more steps during the day.
The researchers of the study boiled down their findings to the simple message: &#;Stand up, sit less, move more.&#; The study was published last week in the European Heart Journal.
Although the research has been pretty clear that there are health benefits to not sitting, we are just starting to understand that standing alone may be a good alternative, said Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, director of preventive cardiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Lopez-Jimenez wrote an editorial that accompanied the study in the European Heart Journal.
&#;The reason [standing could be good] is because when we stand there are many muscles in our legs and butt and abdomen that are working to keep you standing,&#; he said. &#;Whenever muscle is used, it consumes sugar and affects triglycerides,&#; which could, in turn, lower cholesterol, Lopez-Jimenez said. Standing regularly could translate into lower diabetes and heart disease risk, he added.
The current U.S. guidelines for physical activity focus on formal exercise, rather than just moving, and recommend at least 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity exercise such as jogging or biking. However, research suggests that even people who exercise face increased risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes if they are otherwise sedentary.
Lopez-Jimenez thinks the lack of guidelines on sedentary behavior are &#;a problem because we have to start shifting the attention and consider more the idea of avoiding sitting.&#; We need recommendations about many hours to avoid sitting, just like we have for the number of hours we should sleep, he added.
However it is hard to say exactly how to break up our nonsitting time between standing, walking and other activities because we don&#;t know enough about their different health benefits, Lopez-Jimenez said.
In Australia, there are already specific recommendations about how much you should stand and how to do it. It is the first country to have such guidelines, Lopez-Jimenez said. In Colombia, government computers have software that pause the machines, forcing employees to take a break.
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For now, Lopez-Jimenez advises his patients to engineer their lives to be less sedentary such as using a standing desk at work and taking the stairs whenever possible.
If we can manage to build more movement into our everyday activities, it might even be possible to skip the gym, although research is needed to address this possibility, Lopez-Jimenez. &#;If you barely sit during the day, do you really have to exercise to be healthy?&#; he said.
Standing is great, but there can be too much of a good thing.
&#;It causes a whole variety of problems, just as if you sit for too long,&#; said Alan Hedge, professor of ergonomics at Cornell University. In particular, standing for prolonged periods is associated with varicose veins and back pain, he said.
To get the right balance, Hedge recommends sitting 20 minutes out of every half hour at work, standing for eight minutes and moving around for at least two minutes. Although there is really no harm in spending more time in motion, you may be pretty tired by the end of the day if you do, Hedge said.
You can try to stick to this 20-8-2 breakdown by setting the alarm on your , using a timer app on your computer or relying on an old fashioned egg timer. &#;[But] these numbers are not absolute, it&#;s a guideline. There may be times where you have to spend a whole half hour working on a document,&#; Hedge said.
Following this guideline means that you would be standing up and sitting down 32 times in a workday, which could have its own benefits.
Each time you do that, you are giving your body a &#;gravitational stimulus,&#; reminding it of the effect of gravity, which can help muscles and bones stay strong, Hedge said. In the book, &#;Sitting Kills, Moving Heals,&#; Joan Vernikos, former director of NASA&#;s Life Sciences Division, talks about research suggesting that 32 transitions in a day helps maintain healthy blood pressure.
Even if you don&#;t set a timer to tell you when to get out of your seat, there are a number of ways you can build more movement into your workday. Lopez-Jimenez suggests his patients set up their space so that things are not at arm&#;s reach.
&#;Having a printer at the end of the hallway is going to force you to walk every time you print a page,&#; he said.
These little life hacks can take many forms depending on what you do. For example, if you are an executive or administrator and have to be on the a lot, you could use an earpiece and talk while walking the hallway or standing in a conference room, Lopez-Jimenez said.
Workplaces are also starting to do their part to help staff get on their feet.
Some companies have moved vending machines to one central floor as an easy way to get you walking, Hedge said. &#;You&#;re not even thinking, &#;Oh well, I have to walk now,&#; &#; he added.
At Lopez-Jimenez&#;s Mayo Clinic, some cardiology meeting rooms have treadmills at the back of the conference room so attendees can walk instead of sit or stand. &#;The product was so successful that we had to put up sign-up sheets,&#; he said.
Next time you are deciding between lunch from the deli or take-out Chinese, it may make sense to consider going to the spot that is a bit longer stroll, Hedge said. And instead of getting frustrated with the long line to order, just think that you are making a dent in your standing time for the hour.
If you brown bag your lunch and eat at your desk, you can take advantage of the time you saved not going out for food by taking a walk around the floor or block.
Stand by your work
Standing desks are all the rage, and they are an easy way to squeeze more vertical time into your day, Hedge said.
Adding one to your workspace does not have to be a big investment. Hedge recommends starting with a low-tech setup to see if you like it: &#;Three pieces of wood like a bench (on top of your desk), and you have your platform. And if that works, you can spend several hundred dollars on one,&#; he said.
A number of adjustable standing desks are available that can help make the transition between standing and sitting seamless. They run the gamut from electronic to pneumatic, which slide up and down similar to the way an adjustable chair works.
&#;Whatever it is, has to be easy to use and quick, if you can&#;t make an adjustment easily you are not going to use it,&#; Hedge said. Try them out &#; some of the electronic kind are slow, noisy and use a lot of electricity, while the pneumatic variety can be hard to adjust, he noted.
Putting a makeshift footrest &#; a small box for example &#; under the desk can make the standing arrangement more comfortable. Standing on one foot and having the other on a footrest, then switching feet, can ease strain on the back and feet, Hedge said.
Some people go so far as to set up an exercise machine such as a treadmill under their standing desk so they can move in place. Lopez-Jimenez uses a small electronic stair stepper, which he says was inexpensive, when he talks on the or dictates clinical notes. &#;I add a couple hours of not only standing but stepping,&#; he said.
One way to help mix up your time sitting, standing and moving is to figure out how you are most productive. Studies suggest you might not do as well with fine motor skills, such as typing or using a computer mouse, at a standing or treadmill desk, Hedge said. Likewise, for really focused work you might do better sitting.
&#;Anecdotally, treadmill desk companies have people sign waivers (for) if you get engrossed in what you are doing and propelled off the back (of the machine),&#; Hedge said.
For tasks such as reading, you might perform equally well sitting, standing or moving, Hedge said. Plus being on your feet has the advantage that it could keep you more alert, he added.
However, as Lopez-Jimenez pointed out, we still need more research to figure out which positions bring out the best in us. He is working on a study looking at how sitting, standing and walking or stepping affect typing and mouse work as well as our ability to concentrate and pay attention.
Take a stand for TV
There are many opportunities outside of the workplace to stand up for your health. Americans spend an estimated five hours glued to the TV, but we can help break out of this &#;couch potato syndrome&#; by watching standing up.
To make it easier to stay off the couch, some people have a treadmill, exercise bike or a stair stepper in front of the TV, Hedge said. A more low-tech way is to just to stand, and lean on a table or kitchen counter, while glued to the boob tube. Just like when you work at a standing desk, resting one foot on a rail or box can make the upright experience more comfortable.
Park far away and take the stairs
The advice to park a little farther away at work or the grocery store and walk is old but good, Hedge said. Another no-brainer is to take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator if you are only going up a couple of flights. This could get easier as more new buildings are being designed that feature staircases prominently in the lobby instead of the emergency staircase that you have to search for, Hedge said.
&#;In our society, we value doing nothing or minimizing the physical effort that our legs and hands do, but we spend money to pay for the gym and do heavy exercise,&#; Lopez-Jimenez said. &#;We need to start valuing activity more,&#; he added.
Wearable devices such as the FitBit, Virgin Pulse and Nike FuelBand, to name a few, can tell you how much you have moved in a day and estimate how many calories you have burned. But that requires you to be pretty active. Newer technology, such as the KAM device, can detect even minimal movements, Lopez-Jimenez said. And the Apple Watch actually keeps track of whether you have been standing or sitting.
Although today&#;s wearable devices may not be all that accurate yet at measuring small changes in activity, &#;I think the trend will be toward continuing all these things,&#; Lopez-Jimenez said.
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