You may remember my previous post about my switching to a standing
desk. I absolutely loved it. I felt inspired with the new perspective and
genuinely felt better. It took a few weeks to get used to the new setup. Most
of the initial hurdle was tired legs from years of sitting. It was great not
having my back in knots after a day of coding, but the triumph was short lived.
Earlier this month, I started to notice that by around lunch time my calves
were a bit swollen. Since I went all in on the desk, I just powered through
it. Initially I sluffed it off as a temporary thing but after a few days of the
same, I decided to investigate my legs a bit further.
Along with my mid-day cankles, I was starting to notice signs of varicose
veins. Did some research on the matter and came across some great articles on
folks ditching their standing desks as well as recommendations to get some
compression socks. I did the latter because I really didn’t want to backpedal
on the new setup.
A week with compression socks later, I was feeling better, but hated the idea
that I needed special gear just to be able to use my desk. I started to analyze
what had happened to me over the last few months. Since I started using a
standing desk, my activity level had plumetted quite a bit. Standing all day
doesn’t rack up steps on the pedometer and I had cut out my daily walks.
It’s not that I hate walking, but since I’m working on something I love, I
definitely find excuses to NOT take a break. That’s a far cry from my hour
coffee break walks from last year. Somewhere in there I brainwashed myself to
think that simply standing all day was just as good as getting off my ass.
Standing all day had made me lazy.
On top of all of that, I had also been standing way too much. I work all day
and get on my grind most nights. Some days I would be standing upwards of 12 to
14 hours. My desk is fixed position, definitely a caveat for a first timer.
So I added walks back into my routine, just a short mile walk after lunch. I
could definitely see an improvement in how I felt, but leg swelling remained.
From what I can tell, now that the newness of the standing desk has worn off
my posture has gotten lazy. Couple that with the fact that I tend to stand
quite still when I’m knocking out code. Often times I put all of my weight on
my left leg. That’s the leg that was showing the worse signs.
Health risks and cankles aside, I realized that my daughter and I no longer sat
at my desk and played Minecraft or watch stupid animal videos or work on her
Python skills. Standing desks simply aren’t family friendly. You could make the
argument about sitting shaves years off my life, but at the same time, standing
is prohibiting some of our quality time.
That put it over the edge, I gave up on my standing desk. Fortunately my setup
was designed to be able to return to a sitting position if that time came and
my buddy never came over to take my chair so it was still here too. A day back
into sitting and my calves are as sore as my first days standing. Glad I
invested in a couple of pairs of compression socks! It’s weird to be sitting
again, the view just isn’t right but it’s a change and that alone makes it
interesting again.
My plan for the coming weeks is to get into a better walking / running routine.
We’re approaching rainy season and it’s hot as fuck so that will be how I start
my day. I also decided to get back into listening to podcasts so that I can at
least double down on it being a productive use of my time.
I’m going to miss the standing desk. I think it would have been better in an
office environment where I could leave it at the end of the day instead of as
my primary workspace at home. Will I try it again in the future? Most likely!
