Colin Dowdle wasn\u2019t an engineer by trade, he tells\u00a0M&F<\/em>, but his love of snowboarding got him started as an inventor when he put his mechanical mind to building snowmaking machines and ice rinks. What started out as something fun for his backyard soon turned into a fully-fledged business. In his biggest year, he, his father Jim, and their young colleagues built 30 rinks.<\/p>\n With a major in the entrepreneurship program at Marquette University, Dowdle has been able to combine his love of problem solving with meeting market needs. Perhaps his biggest Eureka moment came in 2019. As the coronavirus pandemic took hold and lockdowns ensued, Dowdle found himself sharing working space with two roommates in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago and soon found that working from home with a laptop proved to be crowded and hardly comfortable. The changemaker installed himself in his parents garage and after a ton of trial and error, launched what his website calls<\/a> \u201cthe world\u2019s best ergonomic workstation that doesn\u2019t require a permanent location.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Ergonomics is the study of aligning the needs of a job with the ability of the worker and work environment to provide the most efficient workspace possible while simultaneously reducing the risk of injury,\u2019 explains one study published in the National Library of Medicine<\/a>. Put simply, when you spend a significant amount of time in one position, it\u2019s important to make sure that your body is comfortable and supported, allowing you do maintain proper posture. Often, when people are working for long periods, they slouch or lean forward too much, putting pressure on the spine or neck. Bad ergonomics can also cause shoulder and wrist problems among other ailments. Fortunately, making slight adjustments to how or where you place yourself during work can improve your health and wellbeing. Enter Dowdle\u2019s Lillipad Standing Desk.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll never see more than one frog on one lily pad,\u201d explains the inventor. \u201cAnd, they\u2019ll always be communicating remotely to other frogs on lily pads. They\u2019re very sturdy. When you look at them on top of water it doesn\u2019t look too sturdy but frogs can jump from one lily pad to another without a problem. And then, what people don\u2019t really know is that the lily pads in nature will always expand and retract based on the water level. So, the stem goes up and down, just like an adjustable table. We found it pretty applicable.\u201d<\/p>\n Dowdle\u2019s Lillipad Standing Desk comes in a 42-inch or 48-inch model<\/a> to suit either those who are under 5\u201910\u201d or those who are taller. Best of all, there\u2019s no assembly required and they fold away flat so that when work is over, the desk can be hidden away. \u201cSo, working from home is not going away,\u201d says Dowdle. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be here. For two or three days a week working from home, that\u2019s 40 to 60% of your entire workweek out of the office. If you don\u2019t have ergonomic equipment at home, you are setting yourself up for a disaster.\u201d Indeed, HR Grapevine reports<\/a> that in the United States, around 149 million workdays are lost each year due to lower back pain, costing the economy $98 billion.<\/p>\nWhat are Ergonomics and Why Do They Matter?<\/h3>\n
![\"Female](\"https:\/\/www.muscleandfitness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Female-putting-away-her-Lillipad-Standing-Desk-underneath-her-bed.jpg?w=200&quality=86&strip=all\")
Why the Lillipad Standing Desk is Ergonomically Sound<\/h3>\n