Guest post: Just Keep Walking

The treadmill desk arrived on Friday evening. It's pretty big and we had to rearrange the lounge in order to fit it in. We decided to put it in the window so I've got something to look at when I'm not looking at the screen.

Minor Issues:

When I first tried to work on the treadmill on Friday evening, the desk was a little wobbly. We tightened the nuts with a socket wrench and now it's great.

I think I probably need to adjust the desk to make it a little higher, but it's quite heavy and I need to get someone to do it with me (Neil did this last night - I think it will probably need to go a bit higher so I'm not looking down all day).

I don't have Bluetooth on my phone or laptop so I can't access the online stuff which sounds great (stats, exercise plans etc.). I'm not too bothered about this at the moment as I can write down how far I've walked and how much time I've spent walking at the end of each day.

Things I've learned:

It's very easy to walk while typing/marking essays/messing about on the internet/talking on the phone.

Different tasks seem to work with different walking speeds. 1 mph is about right for editing and typing.  

Good stuff:

The desk itself is pretty big so there's loads of room for piles of marking and/or books and files etc. 

It's much easier to walk than it is to stand still, so even if I'm just checking my emails or messing about on Facebook for 10 minutes, I switch the treadmill on.

I've walked more than 20 miles since Friday evening and my calves are zinging (in a good way).

I can see that if I just stop eating so much chocolate it's going to be a great way to lose weight. Plus, while it's easy to walk and type, it's actually quite hard to walk and eat and/or drink (yes, I've tried both).

The treadmill goes up to 4 mph which, if you've got legs as short as mine, is a jog, so there's scope to go a bit faster at times.

Carys

Guest Blog: Treadmill Desks

I'm Neil's wife and I'm a writer. I spend hours and hours sitting down. I haven't exercised properly for ages. I know I should get up earlier; I should take a break in the middle of the day and go for a walk; I should go out running once the kids are in bed - I should do lots of things, but I don't.

I know exercise has been shown to help low back pain and that walking is good for heart health. I've read things like this Telegraph article which discusses the benefits of walking for an hour a day for elderly people and the American Heart Association study which has found walking to be as effective as running (if one expends the same amount of energy). I've looked at research that shows walking 10,000 steps a day will significantly improve health, build stamina, burn calories and benefit the heart, but I still don't exercise.

Neil recently told me about treadmill desks (can you see where this is going?). He said he'd be interested in discovering more about them, but he needed to find someone who sits at a desk all day and doesn't do any exercise at all. He didn't have to look far. Guess who's trialing the treadmill desk? 

We went to Gym World in Oldham this week and had a look at a desk. Neil was impressed (I was too - it turns out I can type AND walk at the same time) and we're taking delivery of a one next week. I will be blogging about the desk here and over at my own blog. 

I'm off now, until next time, when I will be righteously exercising while typing, rather than sitting on the sofa, trying not to drop the hundreds and thousands from my Nobbly Bobbly between the laptop keys.

Carys