Chic Upcycled Standing Work Station Ideas

If you have a work at home office, and sitting at your desk all day has you gaining weight, growing a bloated belly, maybe making your Diastasis Recti worse, and noticing tighter hip and back muscles, you’ll want to give serious thought to setting up a standing desk in your home office. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to create a standing work station. Once I stacked two boxes on top of each other, plus a bunch of books, and placed my laptop on top of all of that. You can get classy or creative by up-cycling nightstands, antiques, or other furniture items to make a standing work station in your home office.

Do you burn more calories with a standing desk in your home office?

Some articles (like this one by BBC NEWS) claim you can burn more fat by moving to a standing desk, because doesn’t standing burn more calories than sitting? Well, maybe a few, but when Katy Bowman, author, biomechanist, and founder of Nutritious Movement, reviewed that article, she said, “The initial circulation improvements are great, and while there is a benefit to standing (greater loads to the body than sitting) it’s still JUST standing in place. The metabolic improvements would be short-lived unless you did some subtle shifting and stretching while you’re up there for a boost.”

I tend to bounce a little, stretch, wiggle my hips, roll my neck more, even throw in a few squats here and there! I’ve also noticed that I’m more responsive to my family when I’m standing, as if my brain stays more engaged in my surroundings when I stand, and I’m more apt to move away from it to attend my little ones’ needs and wants instead of saying, “Just a minute!”

You can make your own unique standing desk that you can walk up to, work and move at, and walk away!

My favorite potential home office in this pinnable collage I made is the shabby green setup in the top left corner. It would keep all my stuff from falling off the edge, provide some drawer space, and I could screw it to a wall at the height which best suits my alignment!

Like I said, I tend to move more at a standing desk home office station. It’s like I get frozen when I sit down to write for a long time. My neck really takes the hit if I sit too long in one spot. However, I’d like to point out something important: If you just slouch in one spot while standing for hours on end, you might end up with more back pain, not less!

Some cues for good alignment {sitting or standing} that I like are…

• Carry yourself like a queen with your crown lifting toward the ceiling, shoulders relaxed back and wide, torso long and lean, eyes on the horizon.
• Set up the standing desk in your work at home office so you don’t have to crane your neck to see your work. Position your screen so your eyes can look straight ahead.
• Change positions a lot, whether you’re sitting or standing. There’s no such thing as a bad position unless you are there all the time. Your body needs variety throughout the day. We don’t want to get stuck in any posture.
• Go barefoot and put some things on the floor for your feet to play with — like little pebbles, a half-sliced foam roller, or a towel to slide back and forth.

Fit2B Members can practice their standing desk spinal alignment by doing our Sapphire Standing workout here on Fit2B. Think about it: If you exercise with perfect form at the gym for 1 hour, but you spend the other 23 hours of your day slouching, head jutting, hip tucking, rib flaring, etc….

It’s really hard to sit on a couch and not tuck your tailbone, crunch your spine, cross your legs. I will totally admit to doing ALL of those things at some point while writing this blog — BUT I also did some standing and stretching.

Free Weekly Workout More Free Stuff From Fit2B

By the way…

Do you want to work from home? 

Work Your Way Summit

About the Work Your Way Summit

I was hugely honored to be a featured speaker in the Work Your Way Summit which supports people working from offices right in their own homes! They asked me to speak on staying active at a desk, and participants in the summit get access to our office workouts! It is such a great resource for people who earn incomes by working from home! If you don’t currently work from home but you want to, the work your way summit provides ways to get you going with lots of trainings and leads in various fields!

Tell us about your standing desk!

We’d love for you to leave a comment and share how you made a standing desk for your work at home office environment. Was it hard? Did you repurpose another piece of furniture or buy new? What questions do you have about setting up a standing desk or home workstation?

If you already work from a home office, you’re ahead of these changing times already! What exercise and time management tips can you offer for someone just starting to work from home?