Ben Greenfield shows how to use a standing desk without wearing yourself out. The key is switching positions constantly, not staying still. He demonstrates a treadmill desk, anti-fatigue mat, adjustable stool, and calf-stretch board to keep your joints healthy and blood flowing while you work.
Hey, I'm Ben Greenfield and one of the questions I get a lot is how do you manage using a standing workstation or a treadmill workstation or something like that, and not just getting tired being in that standing position all day long or walking on your treadmill all day long. And the fact is, I don't know if I really talked about this much, but I have so many different little toys all around my desk that I use to be in different positions during the day. But I feel great at the end of the day, like my joints aren't locked up and my feet aren't heavy and I don't feel like blood's pooling in my calves. And today I'm going to show you some of the things that I use now underneath this video, if you're watching it on YouTube, I'll be sure and put helpful links for you in the comments or in the description underneath the video. So, first of all, of course there is a treadmill. Now, I understand not everybody's going to have some fancy treadmill next to their desk. And I know those of you who are at an office are like, you know, I'm not going to freaking drag an elephant, you know, baby elephant sized treadmill into my desk. But I do use this treadmill. I'll use this when I'm talking on the phone, when I'm doing activities that primarily don't involve typing, but are more like talking, watching an instructional video, doing a console, doing something that doesn't really involve typing. Because even though I can type, and this is one of the reasons, by the way, even though I have a crank up desk, I actually do have this shoe box that I also keep next to my desk. I highly recommend this just so that you can, if necessary, bring your computer even higher if you need to. So I have this rebel desk that cranks up and down. But for example, when I'm walking on my treadmill, this is one position that I'll be in during the day with my computer set up so that my wrists can simply rest here. So you can see it's very, very simple to walk. What I like about this particular treadmill is it's a fast treadmill. So I can also, if I decide I want to get my heart rate up, I can literally go into a full on sprint on this treadmill. Okay, so that's just one position. Obviously though, I'm not going to be on this treadmill walking the entire day. So a few other things. First of all, these little half foam rollers are really, really Good, because even if you don't have anything else fancy, you at least have the option with a half foam roller of having like one leg up, one leg down. You're able to shift into different positions while you're at your workstation. So again, I'll take this off the shoe box now. I'll set it right here. Another position that I'll be in during the day is, for example, I'll just be working and I'll have one foot up, one foot down, like so. Again, it allows you to shift your weight. This is important being in a variety of different positions throughout the day. The other thing that's cool about this is every once in a while, in between my work, I can just get down on the ground and do some rolling. Okay, so next I have this little piece of wood you can see sitting next to the treadmill. This is so that I can stretch out my calves. When I want to stretch out my calves during the day, I simply lean into this, lean forward. I can put a hand here, stick a leg behind me. But basically something that allows me to kind of mobilize my calves every now and again. That's why I have that piece of wood there too. Next, anti fatigue mat. These things are getting more and more popular. This one's called a Kybun K Y B U N. Again, I'll put links and discount codes and stuff for you underneath the video. But this is just a matt that's made out of a super duper dense foam. Right. So I can stand on this instead of the carpet when I'm working. Again, it's pretty rare that I'm just going to stand like this usually. Once again, I'll have something like this here. I'll have one foot down, one foot up, but some kind of a bouncy anti fatigue type of mat. Like this is another really, really good thing to have next to your desk next to your workstation. I've got two more things that I want to show you here. The first is an adjustable stool. I really like this for travel, but basically it'll go up and down. It never seems to work when I'm shooting a video. That's the thing. But anyways, you get the idea. So I can put this right here and I can actually lean against this stool like so if I do want to still have my hip flexors open. Right. So. So I'm not this 90 degree angle that I'd be when I would be sitting in a chair. But it's just a stool. This one's called A mogo. And what I like about it is it'll fold up into a tiny little position I can travel with. So this is something. There it goes. Now it's extreme. Okay, so this will be a better demonstration for you. Okay. See, more like that. So I can lean into this while I'm at my workstation if I do want to take some pressure off my feet. See how that works. So a little bit different than a chair. And then finally, this came with my Rebel Desk. This is just a chair that's made by the folks at Rebel Desk. And this chair will go up and down. So let's say I'm just like, okay, I want. I need all my cognitive power. Whatever. Just did a hard squat workout. I want to sit down. I can just crank this guy down to whatever position I want to be at. And I can take a seat. I'll bring this up a little bit here.
And I can take a seat here.
So, again, all sorts of different ways that you can play. Now, remember, the most important thing is not sitting all day. It's not standing all day. It's not lying all day. It's not freaking walking and treading all day. It's being in a variety of different positions all day long. And hopefully this got your creative wheels turning about all the different little things you could have around to allow your day of work to not only protect your body, but even make your body better and get fitter while you're getting stuff done. So I hope that was helpful. Again, I've got helpful descriptions and links and discount codes underneath the video for a lot of this stuff. And thank you for watching. I'm Ben from BenGreenfieldFitness.com Work hard.
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