Play standing up

[Jhaelen]

The article/comic strip makes it sound as if it was more healthy to have a job where you're standing all the time than a job where you're sitting all the time. But really all you're doing is trading one set of health problems (back) for a different one (legs, feet).

Comparing modern times with our hunter/gatherer past is particularly funny. Your typical hunter/gatherer's life expectancy was so short, there wasn't even a chance to develop the kind of health problems we're facing today.

I mean, I agree with the main message, but the presentation is very much hyperbolic.

 

[Henry]

Effective, maybe. But "valid"?

In marketing, the two are synonymous. So, yes, a different definition.

Seriously, someone at my work saw this about four months ago and tried to get the business to spring for "walking treadmill" desk stations for everyone. They seriously entertained it for all of two weeks.

 

[Verdande]

Hang on, the right way to sit is at a 135 degree angle? Usually when I do that I get told I look like I'm slacking.

When I found out that my habitual way of sitting is, apparently, the healthiest, I grinned.

People have been telling me, from elementary school to those awful pre-deployment briefs to sit up in my chair.

They can eat it.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

If I stand during a game people might mistake me for a Texas Aggie.

 

[KiloGex]

As the GM I stand up throughout most of the game. I do a lot of walking around the table and gesturing, as I find that it not only helps me get into a character but also helps to put pressure on the players and can really emphasis a tense situation when you're pacing around the table.

And just like swearing around little kids, the less you sit down the more impact it'll have when you actually do. I still keep a chair off to the side, and I find that when I do sit down during a combat or RP encounter it lets the players know that they're in a tight spot. At that point, it's a visual representation letting them know that the ball is in their court, that you're literally just sitting back and waiting for them to act.

Game Mastering is just as much about the psychological affects that you can lay on your players, just as much as the mechanics and story are.

 

[prosfilaes]

Their "calorie burning drops to 1 calorie per minute" is the victim of well-placed rounding error. My understanding is that a human at rest burns about 1.4 calories per minute.

That's oversummary. The human of 150 lbs burns 1.4 calories at complete rest. 150 lbs may have been average for an American in 1960, but we're up to 177 lbs, and burning proportionally more energy at rest. (And for roleplayers, we're 4/5ths male, according to that 1999 WotC study and 2011 Neoncon numbers, so that puts up to 185, assuming we aren't fatter than the average population.)

Not to mention that there's sitting and then at rest; I don't trust How Many Calories Does Sitting Burn? | eHow.com completely, but it gives us 1.4 calories per minute at complete rest. But talking on the phone or using the computer is up to 1.7 (again for 150 lbs) and "Gesturing, raising your voice or getting excited can increase the calories burned to about 120 per hour." We also burn calories while eating, 130 per hour; I won't presume how to combine that with getting excited, but I'm comfortable saying that the average roleplayer burns at least 2 calories an hour while playing (which would be the 1.7 scaled from 150 lbs to 185).

 

[AeroDm]

Sitting brings with it problems other than just caloric burn since we really aren't designed to sit for long periods of time. Sitting changes the distribution of weight to affect your breathing and tends to pinch arteries, both of which are actually fairly problematic. Many people also report much higher brain function while standing which has led to the popularity of the standing desk. For me personally, I'm significantly more productive standing than sitting.

Despite all that, I still prefer to sit while gaming.