There’s growing concern amongst medical experts regarding the negative impact that sitting down for long periods of time can have on our health. And, of course, many of us spend most of our working day sitting at a desk.

Scientific studies over the last decade have shown that too much sitting down can lead to obesity plus an increased risk of developing high blood pressure, raised cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes. headaches caused by poor posture, slipped discs as the spine becomes less flexible and, frighteningly, an increased risk of developing some cancers due to the increased levels of insulin sedentary people experience.

These findings were found to hold true whether or not people are physically active in their spare time.

But there simple things you can do to reduce your risk of ill health. Rotating your feet at the ankles and getting up to walk around every 20 minutes or so should help the circulation in your legs and prevent fluid build-up in your ankles. For back, shoulder and headaches due to poor posture, stand up every hour and interlock your fingers behind your back for a few seconds. And always use the stairs!

But Mike Trenell, professor of movement and metabolism at Newcastle University says that simply standing up as much as possible is the best thing you can do – standing up engages the abdominal muscles, calves and quadriceps, and the more muscles you use, the better.

The results of all of this research have led to a huge rise in the sale of treadmill desks in the United States – sales have tripled since 2012. The walkable desks are designed specifically for an office setting and move at around 1-2 miles per hour, which increases the heart rate but is a comfortable pace to carry on working. Of course, treadmill desks aren’t suitable for many offices, so standing desks are also becoming an ever more popular trend. Standing desks stack on top of an existing desk and can increase your heart rate by up to 10 beats per minute – standing at your desk for just three hours per day can burn up to 50 calories per hour. That’s 750 over a five day week, which over the course of a year would burn off around 8lbs of fat.

Here at Millennium SI we’re at the forefront of innovative and creative office design. So if you think it’s time to stand up and be counted as a business that promotes health and wellbeing in the workplace, we’d be happy to source and supply the latest standing or treadmill desks for you. Just get in touch and we’ll do the rest.