I’ll be completely honest with you: I’d never considered buying a standing desk. My Ikea desk has been through a lot over the past 10 years, but it held my monitor on it and hid my gaming PC underneath it, so why spend a fortune getting a new desk with a motor that allows me to change the height? What benefit could that possibly have for me while working or gaming?
It turns out, the benefit is huge, and I was wrong to have never seriously considered getting a standing desk before.
Had the Flexispot E7 standing desk never been sent to me for review, I wouldn’t appreciate just how wrong I was and how much of a game changer a standing desk really is. I’ve been reflecting on that a lot over the past few weeks as I’ve been adapting to having a standing desk and trying to get down my thoughts for the review.
Like many gamers and office workers, I suffer from aches and pains due to bad posture. This can range from a mild dull pain to severe pain that has me leaping off of the couch, throwing an embarrassed look at my wife as I do. I’ve tried incorporating semi-regular stretching into my work day and also taking walks at lunchtime, but I work a computer-based job and I spend far too long in front of a screen. There is no getting around that fact. Then, to top it off, I finish work and play video games, sitting on the same chair, staring at the same screen.
The benefit of having a standing desk for during the working is more obvious that the benefit for gaming. After all, standing during a Teams call makes sense. But, standing while trying to nail a headshot in PlanetSide 2? The thought of that made a lot less sense to me, and is one of the main reasons I hadn’t really considered a standing desk for gaming.
But, you’d be surprised how quickly you forget that you’re standing when you’re fully immersed in a game. I’ve stood for 2-hour Valheim sessions with my friends, and also while playing FPS games to pass some downtime away, and in both scenarios, I forgot that I was on my feet within a few minutes of firing up the game.
It isn’t about standing every minute of every day – few people would choose to stand at their desk when they have the option to sit. It is about having the option to stand when you choose to, switching between a sitting and a standing setup as and when needed.
Being able to position a standing desk to the correct height means that there is no temptation to slouch forward in between rounds: I’ve been able to maintain a good posture through my sessions. Don’t get me wrong, there is some shifting from foot to foot as the gaming session drags on, but I’ve started to use that as a sign that it is probably time to take a break.
Gosh, I’m getting old.
Having the flexibility to stand or sit depending on the games I’m playing, how my body is feeling, and how long my gaming session is has genuinely changed my life for the better, something that a touched upon in my review of the Flexispot E7 standing desk. I cannot stress enough how much having a standing desk has encouraged me to fix my poor posture and made me more comfortable while working and gaming. I couldn’t go back to a normal desk having experienced owning a standing desk for gaming and working.
If you spend long periods at your desk, I urge you to consider picking up a standing desk too.
