or perhaps your own...
Some time ago I started looking into a way to give Colleen a better shot at good posture in the kitchen. She happens to be extremely tall and the constant bending was causing back pains. The first approach was looking for a general solution that could be used by anyone who happened to be tall (whatever "tall" means), but it turned out that adjustable, sturdy and affordable were hard to combine. One solution was to throw away adjustable and tailor a working surface for her.
In reading research on optimal work positions, it became clear that anyone over about 5'8 needs a working surface over 36" tall for food prep. If you're curious, here is a simple way to find your optimal surface height.
I found a company that does great work making custom extended height tables. This is much cheaper than raising countertops and works for apartment dwellers and homes where there are cooks of mixed heights. They can be supplied in heights of 4" and up - 4" would work well for someone who is in the 5'10 range. They offer thick cutting boards for someone with a bit less height. Very high models - beyond the 13.5" rise of Colleen's can be requested and the lengths and widths are custom. If you want to give something like this for holiday season you can make your own or order from AWP. I can recommend AWP - the build quality is excellent and they are a pleasure to do business with.
I'm much shorter than Colleen, but my table allows long periods of pain-free kitchen work. You can see by the photo that Colleen's allows her to have excellent posture in the kitchen. She had her mother shoot a short video of her board ...
If you are near the optimal height to work at standard countertops (about 5'4 or 5'5 in the US), great - but if not it makes sense to protect your back -- or the back of someone you know. If you use AWP, mention Colleen's name.
Recently we heard from a very tall chef (a few inches shorter than Colleen) who finds his 45" countertops essential for his health. He noted that some chefs who happen to be in the 5' range wear shoes that give them a bit more height, but that custom counters are more desirable in that range.
People like Colleen obviously need products that are made for them, but many of us may be experiencing problems from mass produced things that want to force us into dealing with them. She has a nice post summing up some thoughts on the subject.
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