Treadmill Desk
 

So I work from home with means sitting 8+ hrs 5 times a week. My solution after lots of research is a treadmill desk.

As I'm typing this I'm walking 1mph on my new treadmill. There are fancy treadmill desks and then there are cheap treadmill desks :) or in my case free since I made it out of leftover insulation foam that I found in the garage. I just cut pieces to fit over the top of the handle bars and kept stacking and stacking until I got the right height. This is not the prettiest solution but it's working and doesn't cost a ton.

Hoping this works longterm !

1 mile an hour!

That is so cool! Good for you for DIY.

Love this! I "sit" on the computer way too much also.

I love this idea! I also work at home.. do you use a laptop? I only have a desktop so I'm not sure if I could do the same thing or not.. but I'd sure love to! any ideas??

I've been doing this for a while now (at least a year). Believe it or not, I'm now up to walking 3.0 mph (elevation 4) while working on my computer. For the longest time, I walked 2.5 mph, but then I increased my speed this year. I've always been a naturally very fast walker, and once I'm "in the zone" I don't even remember I'm walking.

Doesn't it feel great to be getting exercise and getting something else done as well! My homemade tread-desk has been the single most important difference in my attitude toward exercise (i.e., I don't feel stressed because I don't have to carve out specific time to just exercise).

Google "office walkers." It's a forum dedicated to people who use tread-desks (either bought or homemade). Many of the people there have posted photos of their homemade tread-desks. Some use laptops, and others use desktops (I use a desktop). My husband created mine by attaching a very simple board for my keyboard and mouse to the front bar of my treadmill. I had to prop it up more with some foam and even a folded mesh bath mat. I put my monitor on the top of a bookshelf that was the perfect height, and I moved the bookshelf near enough to my treadmill to see (I had to empty the bottom shelf, and pushed the lower half of my treadmill into that shelf). Also, I just use the Ctrl + keys to increase the font size on my screen to see it well.

Now this set-up doesn't look pretty, but it's my "office" and, frankly, no one but me goes in there anyway.

Actually, that's a pretty genius idea! I'd take one of those and just station my laptop on it, I could get tons of exercise the way I check my email...

End of Day 1 :)

Started out very motivated. Stepping on the treadmill meant I wasn't just kind of awake. I was way more productive and with the exception of 3 phone calls and a 3 hr break in the afternoon (I sat in a chair for this time...worried about over doing it) I accomplished more work than usual in my day.

I'm in love with this ugly rigged desk...I'm on it right now while watching Made of Honor for the hundredth time. I figured I could get in a couple more miles at 2.5 pace while surfing the internet.

2.0-2.5 pace worked really great for me. I lowered to 1.5 for a coffee break a couple of times but all considered I'll have 10 miles done today....which is 10 more than last Monday :)

Hopefully I'm not too sore tomorrow.

That's awesome and sooo totally brilliant!!

Great idea, I need to install my own.

I do this too! And mine is also jury-rigged. I walk at least 2 hours/day. I find I can do that comfortably while doing stuff that doesn't require a lot of thinking. For real work, I need to slow down or stop in order to focus.

I love love love it!!! It means that I don't have to carve out extra time to exercise. I'm on it right now! :)

For your edification, Susan, most special purpose treadmill desks are designed with a maximum of .5 (one half) mph. The point is not to have the ultimate cardio workout, but to get away from the sedentary lifestyle that so many of us with desk jobs have been locked into for decades. Recent studies are showing that sitting for several hours a day is unhealthy and strenuous workouts at the gym do NOT compensate for that.

How does a treadmill desk work then? I mean, most of us just strolling along aimlessly and without thoughts of speed or effort clock around a 20-minute mile, which is 3 mph in treadmill-speak.

Post pics! I want to see!

I wish I could make some sort of portable version to take to the gym with me on my lunch "break"... I still probably wouldn't get much done... Oh well.

Just be careful. I've heard about people getting *too* distracted and injuring themselves or dropping something that gets caught and breaks the machine.

Otherwise it sounds great! You don't even have to break a sweat to be worth it! And for me it would be great on my back, since I have pretty bad back problems and sitting all day is **** on it. Unfortunately I work in an office, so working on a treadmill isn't really feasible... :(