Last month I wrote a blog highlighting the benefits and advantages an employee wellness program can have on your firm’s employees and your bottom line.
Recently, I purchased a keyboard stand for my office that allows me to stand at my desk and work instead of sit. My “stand” set up is pictured here. It is painfully simple and cost under $80 total.
I did this on the simple assumption that standing was overall better than sitting for 8 – 10 hours a day. Turns out, I completely underestimated the benefits. My revelations came from a BBC News magazine article referencing the subject. Here are some facts that might raise an eyebrow or two:
- Standing rather than sitting can burn around 50 calories per hour.
- If you stand for three hours a day for five days, that is around 750 calories burnt.
- Over the course of one year, that would equal 30,000 calories or around 8 pounds of fat.
- This is the equivalent of running approximately 10 marathons per year…just by standing up to three or four hours a day at work.
New trend? Not by a long shot. Ernest Hemingway, Oscar Hammerstein II, Donald Rumsfeld, Winston Churchill and even Benjamin Franklin all stood while they worked.
Skeptical? Check out this calorie-burn calculator and see how many you can burn by standing rather than sitting. Imagine the overall health benefits for your employees? To your overall healthcare costs? All for an overall investment of under $80 per employee.
Yes, I wrote this while standing proud, and burned through about 25 calories to boot. You can read the full article here.
Vice President – Business Development