Best Standing Desk Accessories: Mats, Footrests and the Ones to Skip

The accessories aisle for standing desks is mostly upsell. A handful of items change something you can point at, and the rest are cable clips with a brand on them.

Four below, ordered by how much they change per dollar. The most expensive one is also the one with the largest effect, which is unusual enough in this category to be worth stating up front.

Specifications below are from the published product listings.

The order things should be bought in

Before the products, the priority, because it decides which of these you need.

A standing desk that is at the wrong height is not improved by accessories. Measure your two elbow heights, set the presets and use them for a fortnight. Then buy whichever of these the fortnight told you that you needed, and probably not the others.

The genuine sequence is: correct heights, then a keyboard tray if the desk cannot come low enough, then a mat if standing is what hurts, then a footrest if sitting is, then cable management because a desk that goes up needs it.

VIVO Clamp-on Keyboard Tray

Wrong for you if your desk already reaches your seated elbow height. This is a fix for a specific measured problem, and the arithmetic tells you whether you have it.

Mind Reader Adjustable Foot Rest

Wrong for you if your feet are already flat with your thighs level. The thirty-second test has a yes or no answer and it is worth doing before ordering.

Amazon Basics Anti-Fatigue Standing Mat

Wrong for you if you are standing on carpet already and comfortable. The mat solves a hard-floor problem.

Under-Desk Cable Management Tray

Wrong for you if your cables already have slack. Measure at full extension before ordering.

What to skip

Under-desk treadmills and bikes, unless you specifically want one. Nothing in the sit-stand literature supports them as a posture intervention. The SMArT Work trial found sitting time fell and standing rose with walking essentially unchanged, which tells you the desk is not a movement device. A treadmill is a fitness purchase and should be evaluated as one.

Balance boards. Marketed as active standing. There is no trial evidence that standing on an unstable surface improves any postural outcome, and there is a real trip hazard.

Branded cable clips at $2 each. Hardware shop, a bag of twenty, done.

A second monitor arm bought at the same time as the desk. Buy the desk, set the heights, live with it for a fortnight, then find out where the screen actually needs to be. The arm roundup is a separate purchase for a separate reason and there is no discount for confusion.

Which of the four

Your desk cannot come down to your seated elbow height: the keyboard tray. It is the only one that changes your geometry.

Your feet dangle when the chair is set to the desk: the footrest, after the thirty-second test.

Standing is what hurts: the mat, and reset your standing preset once it arrives.

Something has been unplugged by the desk: the cable tray.

None of the above applies: buy nothing. Spend the money on nothing at all, or on the fortnight of actually using the height presets that will tell you which of these you need.

Questions people actually ask

Do anti-fatigue mats actually work?

They are a comfort intervention rather than one with trial evidence behind it. What is documented is that a third of participants in one eight-week sit-stand workstation trial reported more back pain on workstation days, and a hard floor is a plausible part of that. At $29 the mat is worth trying before concluding standing does not suit you.

What standing desk accessory is worth buying first?

None of them, until you have used the desk at correctly measured heights for a fortnight. After that, the keyboard tray if your desk cannot reach your seated elbow height, because it is the only one that changes the geometry rather than your comfort within it.

Do I need a footrest with a standing desk?

Only if your feet do not reach the floor when the chair is set to the desk. If they do, adding a footrest raises your knees above your hips and tips the pelvis backward, which is the problem you were trying to avoid.

Are under-desk treadmills good for posture?

There is no evidence that they are. The main sit-stand trial found that sitting fell and standing rose while walking stayed essentially unchanged, so the desk itself does not make you move. A treadmill is a fitness purchase and should be judged as one rather than as a posture intervention.

Will a mat change my standing desk height setting?

Yes, by its own thickness. A three-quarter inch mat raises you three-quarters of an inch, which comes off your standing height requirement. Reset the preset once it arrives rather than assuming the old number still applies.

Sources

• Healy et al., "Evaluation of sit-stand workstations in an office setting: a randomised controlled trial", BMC Public Health, 2015, for the 33% reporting increased back pain. PMC4653846
• Edwardson et al., "Effectiveness of the Stand More AT (SMArT) Work intervention: cluster randomised controlled trial", BMJ, 2018, for the unchanged walking finding. PMC6174726
• Waters and Dick, "Evidence of Health Risks Associated with Prolonged Standing at Work and Intervention Effectiveness", Rehabilitation Nursing, 2015. PubMed 25041875