Excuse the pun, but standing desks are on the rise. As our backs grow brittle and we begin to waste away, one standing desk in particular rises to the top.
—Cue applause from healthcare professionals everywhere—
If you’re reading this from your computer screen, odds are you’re no stranger to back pain. Will I be making some relevant connections between back pain and standing desks? Yes. Of all the desks out there—work desks, art desks, gaming desks, etc.—there’s one variety that addresses back pain and which is overdue for some well-earned recognition, especially since its benefits to your physical wellbeing are well-known.
That variety of desk? You guessed it. The standing desk variety. After 11 years of buying (+ sometimes returning), as well as testing, reviewing, and scrapping (you wouldn’t believe how many start falling apart right away) standing desks of every imaginable build, I’ll flatter myself by assuming some authority on the matter.
I’m a seasoned office worker well-accustomed to a smorgasbord of work and desk environments. I’m well-accustomed to the consequences of having to deal with the desk I’m dealt. It’s been over 20 years of being an employee that has to sit at a desk. I can tell you right now (and it pains me to say this): I messed up for a while. My history has informed me of one fundamental fact: Standing desks are the truth.
Standing desks started taking off after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With more people working from home, more began coming to the realization that, throughout the day, they weren’t standing all that much. And the effect that that was having on their backs and overall physical health was less than ideal.
As someone who worked from home at that time (and who’s since transitioned into a more hybrid situation), I believe I was among the first people to go down the standing desk rabbit hole. So, I’ve reviewed a lot of gaming desks, standing desks, etc. (After all, I’d been searching for a solution for years to that point.) Along the way, I had the pleasure of reviewing one such L shaped standing desk which I feel rises well above the rest. Honestly, I miss working from home purely because I can’t use my EGDL60 L Shaped Standing Desk as often anymore… whoops. I let it slip. Stay with me.
First, a little more about back health.
Did you know that merely moving from a sitting position to a standing position every 30 minutes not only improves your mood but also reduces blood sugar spikes by an average of 11%? Did you know that the act of standing burns 20% more calories than sitting does? That the circulation afforded just from standing significantly reduces the risk of heart disease, blood clots, diabetes, and a host of other ailments? Did you know that your sacrum, tailbone, lower back, middle back muscles, and core muscles all suffer from hours-long sedentary periods?
You might be experientially familiar with a few, or even all, of these ailments. What you may not be familiar with is the solution…
Regardless of default desk height or chair size, people often struggle finding a desk setup that actually addresses the issues of not only their back pain but their back health. Thankfully, I’m not alone in this experience or observation. Health professionals all over continue to sing the praises of standing desks as a healthier alternative to non-ergonomic desks. I’m joining the chorus.
To wit: The human body was never designed to sit for as long as we do. Sitting the way we do presents inherent challenges: we hinder circulation; we place undue stress on our lower backs as our spinal cords bend unnaturally to overcompensate for our positioning; we allow our obliques and other core muscles to atrophy, which in turn decreases support for—and adds more strain to—our spinal area.
What if that wasn’t all? Sorry, but it isn’t. The fact is—not only were we, as humans, not anatomically fitted for long-term sitting, but the manner in which we sit is super, super unnatural, too. We’ve been doing it all wrong!
If you look at the history of our species, if you take into consideration what our anatomies suggest about how we should be sitting and standing, you’d have one look at a standing desk and go, “Well, that does seem to make sense.” Kind of obvious, no? The desks and chairs we’re accustomed to cue our bodies to adapt in ways that don’t come as second nature—which, for me, feels like something I should have sussed out a long time ago as something that just wasn’t going to work. Again—why it wasn’t readily apparent that I needed a desk that could adjust its own height continues to be a source of embarrassment for me. I could’ve saved myself so much time and discomfort. Eternally grateful that I began to uncover the solution, step by step.
The solution? Don’t sit the whole time, for one. You might be thinking, “But that would interrupt my routine.” No, it wouldn’t. What if you could simply stand up, press a button, and have your desk elevate to your level? What if you could stand up and down to your heart’s content? What if someone who’s worked at a desk their ENTIRE LIFE told you there was a solution?
Pivoting, finally, to the solution here… (I’ve had you this long, which means conventional logic has appealed to you. That’s a good sign.)
I tried out a few standing desks that I chalk up to just being duds—none of them had the room I needed for the amount of work I have to do, none had very reliable controls, and the structural materials seemed dubious at best. I couldn’t imagine any of these standing desks lasting functionally for very long—not as long as I expected a standing desk to be functional, anyway.
The best standing desk of 2022 is the EGD L60 L Shaped Standing Desk from Eureka Ergonomic. It has a height adjustable range of 30” to 48”, which spans the virtual gamut of height setting needs. Its dual motor system ensures that the desktop moves upward and downward without any staggering, maintaining a dependably even surface. And if you don’t want to manually adjust the height every time, this standing desk comes with 4 built-in memory presets for easy and quick accessibility.
I mentioned earlier that I need a lot of space based on the nature of my day job. WELL. The L shape structural design of this standing desk met that need and THEN some. You can purchase it with its L shape panel either on the right or on the left. Horizontally, it is 60” across, accounting for a large portion of the space provided, with a depth of 24” for the long panel and a depth of 44” for the L shape panel. That’s long, wide, has good depth, but you still might be wondering: Does that mean it’s really all that strong? It can support up to three full-sized computer monitors (or 220lbs). That should satisfy your question.
But let’s not let our attention drift from the main draw of the EGD L60 L Shaped Standing Desk. We’re talking about standing desks, so how well does this baby take off? Smoothly, is the answer. The surface of the EGD L60 L Shaped Standing Desk rises evenly across the board (literally), and its dual motors never seem to get tired, no matter how much time you may spend being finicky over getting to “just the right setting.” (I especially appreciated its digital display and app control, which makes it way more user-friendly than other standing desks I’ve reviewed.)
20 years of desk work, 11 years of speculating “Could there be something else out there?”
Here I am. At last. So—
Sometimes while standing you might want to spread your stance a little to take some of the strain off your sacrum. Right? Other times, standing as straight as a tentpole turns out being what feels best. Let me know if I’m not getting warmer here.
The EGD L60 L Shaped Standing Desk can accommodate any height preference, down to the very inch.
That, alone, was enough to convince me. Thing is—other desks told me the same thing, too. So—which standing desks actually followed through on the promise? Only the EGD L60 L Shaped Standing Desk did. Its carbon steel build put my worries to rest almost right away. The spacing issue was addressed—like, on arrival. My specific ergonomic needs were met before I could blink.
For its price, the EGD L60 L Shaped Standing Desk offers far more than its competitors (and I tried their stuff out, too). When it comes down to it, we are talking about back health, about resolving the constant pain in our backs endured from hours upon hours of work sitting at a desk that doesn’t care to meet our needs, let alone our expectations.
—Cue applause from desk workers suffering from back pain all around the world—
You don’t need to live in perpetual discomfort. You don’t need to contort your spine just to get the day’s work done. All you need is a setup that’s designed for natural human purposes, that’s designed for the actual anatomy of human beings. While other standing desks may purport to have as much seamless functionality as the EGD L60 L Shaped Standing Desk, I’ve yet to find one to follow through like it did.
I—and my back—are grateful for this standing desk.
