working while walking!!

Walking While Working: Should You Try a Treadmill Desk?

Sitting is killing you. If the reports are to be believed, all that time you spend working while sitting down will shave precious years off your life expectancy. Medical Billing & Coding issued a gloomy report last year that said "sitting 6 or more hours a day makes you 40 percent likelier to die within 15 years than someone who sits less than 3 hours a day."

THE GOOD SIDE:

The TR1200-DT is a solidly made machine consisting of a desktop apparatus that comes separate from the treadmill itself. The desk is simple to put together, but it’s a two-person job to lift the heavy desktop onto the heavy steel legs. The desktop itself is 46.5 inches wide and 31 inches deep, with plenty of room to accommodate your computer, monitor, and pretty much anything you’d need to get your work done. 

 The treadmill itself is comfortable and has a large (20 x 56 inch) walking surface, so you don’t have to worry about falling off while you’re paying attention to your laptop screen. It has just the right amount of bounce and cushion, and the 2.25-hp high torque motor keeps it running for at least 6 hours (and even more in my tests) with no worries about the motor burning out or overheating from constant use. It’s extremely quiet so there’s no threat of distractions during conference calls or Skype sessions.

THE BAD SIDE:

The downsides of the Life Span start with the treadmill desk’s massive size. Yes, I listed the huge desktop as a positive above, and it is if space isn’t a premium. But if you’re confined to a small office or workspace, the big treadmill desk is unwieldy. I switched back to my ordinary workstation after this test, but if it weren’t for the swath of space the treadmill desk consumes in my office, I might have become a full convert.

Another issue with the TR1200-DT in particular is the height-adjustment mechanism. There’s really no practical way to adjust the height of the desk by yourself; it’s a two-person job nearly every time you want to make an adjustment. The weight might make the thing stable and sturdy, but if you want to take the desktop up or down a notch (especially if more than one person will be using the workspace), you’re going to need a partner to help lift the desk while the other pulls out the adjustment knobs.