Standard desk height is wrong for most people
Desks are built to one height. Bodies are not. How to find yours, and the two ways to fix a desk you cannot adjust.
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| Pick | Best for | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| HUANUO adjustable footrestBest overall | Anyone raising their chair to meet a too-tall desk | $ | Check price |
| ComfiLife foam footrestBest rated | Comfort under the desk rather than precise height correction | $ | Check price |
| Mind Reader footrestCheapest that works | A second desk, or testing whether a footrest helps at all | $ | Check price |
HUANUO adjustable footrest
$Best for anyone raising their chair to meet a too-tall desk
What we liked
- Height and tilt both adjust, so you can hit a right angle at the knee rather than settle
- Around 13,000 ratings, so it is a well-trodden product rather than a gamble
- Textured surface that does not slide out from under you mid-morning
What we didn't
- The lowest rating of the three here at about 4.2 stars
- Plastic construction that looks like what it costs
The one to get, because adjustability is the whole point. Your desk is a fixed height and your body is a fixed height, so the thing in between has to be the variable.
Check price on AmazonOpens in a new tab. We deliberately do not print prices — they change constantly and a stale number is worse than none.ComfiLife foam footrest
$Best for comfort under the desk rather than precise height correction
What we liked
- About 4.6 stars across roughly 14,000 ratings, the best-reviewed footrest we found
- Dense foam rather than hollow plastic, so it does not creak or flex
- Two usable heights depending on which way up you set it
What we didn't
- Two positions is not the same as adjustable, so check it lands where you need
- Foam attracts dust and is harder to wipe clean than plastic
Buy this one if you already know roughly what height you need and you want the nicest thing to rest your feet on. Buy the HUANUO if you are still working the height out.
Check price on AmazonOpens in a new tab. We deliberately do not print prices — they change constantly and a stale number is worse than none.Mind Reader footrest
$Best for a second desk, or testing whether a footrest helps at all
What we liked
- Nearly 19,000 ratings, the largest feedback pool of anything in the category
- Rocking surface encourages the ankle movement that sitting still takes away
- Cheap enough to be a low-risk experiment
What we didn't
- Around 4.2 stars, so expectations should be set at "does the job"
- Limited height adjustment compared with the HUANUO
Honestly, try a ream of paper first. If it helps, come back and buy something that is not a ream of paper. This is the something.
Check price on AmazonOpens in a new tab. We deliberately do not print prices — they change constantly and a stale number is worse than none.Almost every desk sold is somewhere around 73 to 75 cm tall. That number is not the result of a study into human bodies. It is a manufacturing convention, and it fits a fairly narrow band of people — roughly, adults somewhere near 180 cm tall.
If you are shorter or taller than that, your desk is the wrong height, and every hour you spend at it you are compensating for it with your shoulders or your wrists.
Find your number
Forget the desk for a moment. Sit in your chair, adjusted properly: feet flat, knees at a right angle.
Now let your arms hang straight down, completely relaxed. Bend your elbows to a right angle, forearms parallel to the floor.
Wherever your hands are now is where your keyboard should be. That height, give or take a centimetre or two, is your correct desk height.
Measure from the floor to your palms. That is your number. For most people it lands somewhere between 62 and 72 cm, which is to say: below a standard desk, often well below.
What the wrong height does
Desk too high — the common case. To reach the keyboard you either raise your shoulders towards your ears and hold them there, or you bend your wrists upwards. The first produces the tight band across the top of your shoulders. The second loads the wrists and forearms.
Desk too low — you lean forward and down, which rounds your upper back and drags your head forward with it.
Notice that a too-high desk and a low monitor produce pain in almost exactly the same place, from opposite directions. If your shoulders and neck hurt, check both before concluding anything.
Fixing a desk you cannot adjust
There are exactly three honest options.
1. Raise the chair, then support the feet. This is the cheapest real fix and it works. Raise your chair until your elbows are level with the desk surface. Your feet will now dangle, which is bad, so you put something solid under them — a footrest, a box, a stack of books that does not slide. Your knees should still be at roughly a right angle on it.
This is a proper fix, not a bodge. Raising the chair and supporting the feet gets you a correct elbow height and a correct knee angle simultaneously, which is the whole goal.
2. Lower the work surface, not the desk. A keyboard tray that mounts under the desk drops the keyboard to your real height while the desk stays where it is. Good if you have the clearance and do not mind fitting it.
3. Replace the desk with an adjustable one. The complete solution, and the expensive one. Worth it if you are already considering a sit-stand desk — the adjustability is arguably a bigger benefit than the standing.
The order to do this in
Height problems cascade, so fix them from the ground up. Anything else and you will re-do the same adjustment three times.
- Chair height, so your elbows meet the desk surface.
- Feet, supported flat, knees at a right angle.
- Seat depth, two to three fingers behind the knee.
- Armrests, shoulders relaxed, forearms lightly supported.
- Monitor, top of the screen at or just below eye level.
Every one of those is free. Do all five before you spend anything, then work out what is left over. For a lot of people the honest answer at that point is nothing, which is a perfectly good outcome and one you will rarely see written down on a site that sells things.
One caveat on split heights
The correct keyboard height and the correct mouse height are the same height. If your mouse sits on a different surface, or off to the side on a higher part of the desk, you have solved one arm and abandoned the other. Whatever you do, do it for both hands.