TrekDesk — A Treadmill Desk

Posted on 7 May 2008 by jeff

Check out http://www.trekdesk.com/ — they are producing a universal desktop that mounts to a treadmill so folks like me won’t have to build their own. Pretty cool looking. I’ll be interested in seeing the final results. Also interesting is the ball seat — a nice addition — but not clear to me how well that will work out.

The Hamster Wheel

Posted on 9 Feb 2008 by jeff

I’m still going strong on the treadmill. It’s been a week since I installed the treadmill and I’m pretty happy with the results. On most days I seem to walk around 4 miles at a pace of 1 mph. I haven’t really noticed any difference in my weight (not that I’m trying to lose any) so it’s not clear what the calorie burn is at this point. But I do notice that I’m more focused on the tasks at hand once I’m on the treadmill. Once I’m on it, I don’t want to stop what I’m doing, which is a good thing. I’ve gotten much more done over the week since I’ve had it.

Walking While Working

Posted on 2 Feb 2008 by jeff

I have joined the ranks of the “work walkers” — I now have a treadmill in my office. The walking while working movement was started by Dr. James Levine of the Mayo clinic. His basic premise is that NEAT (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis) is more important that regular excercise. One way to trigger NEAT is to walk while you work. More info is also at http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2005-rst/2836.html.

So I acquired a treadmill and built up a desk for myself so that I can walk while working on my computer. With the number of meetings that I have every day, the number of hours I actually spend doing this will vary, but at least I won’t be sitting on my rear end while I’m in my office. FWIW, I am actualy an exercise fiend these days — I work out 5 days a week, including both cardio and weight training. (Today, for example, I did a one hour indoor cycling class.) But I think this will be fun and I’m looking forward to the other benefits of this activity, including better focus and concentration.

This picture is what my office looks like with the treadmill. It’s hard to see the treadmill in this photo because it’s directly behind my desk chair. I built the desk around the treadmill and you can see my computers off to the side.