Burn Calories Trying to Catch Your Keyboard
Submitted by wood.tang on February 11, 2008 - 8:54am.
Tired of trying to fit exercise into your busy work schedule? Sure you are. Lucky for you there’s the TreadDesk, which lets you walk while you work! Not convinced? Then you’re just too lazy to click through. Here, tubby:
You don’t have to be a health expert to know that walking is beneficial to the human body. Unfortunately though, most people that are “tied to their desk” all day, have never had the option to walk at work, until now.
By walking at a slower pace (1.0 to 2.0) you can type and talk on the phone as you normally would and easily walk anywhere from 3-6 miles every day. Even at a slow pace, you can burn up to 600 calories a day, WITHOUT GOING ON A DIET.
Did you see that? Walking is good, Thomas Jefferson says so. For anywhere from $695 to $4,000, you can install one of these babies in your office, and it does wonders for your concentration.
You think I’m joking? I just burned 62 calories writing this sentence. Here, I’ll show you a chart of all the miles I’ve walked at work … here … let me just grab it … hold on … almost got it … ow. Debbie! How do you turn this thing off?
(via Deadspin and the Deuce of Davenport)
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It is great
I have set up an older laptop like this on my treadmill. I don’t do actual “work” on it, but I can easily spend an hour and a half on it reading emails, looking at my friends’ photos on Facebook, and catching up on the blogs and sites on my RSS reader.
Don’t think “I wouldn’t want to work that way”. Think “How can I get off the computer and off my ass, which is becoming larger by the day.” Instead think: “There must be some way I can make walking on the treadmill enticing.”
I dislike exercising outside (I live in a huge city with limited green space and horrible pollution), I dislike going all the way to a gym (takes more time and costs a lot, and I dislike crowded, noisy spaces), so the treadmill has always been attractive to me. Only my treadmill had hardly been used in the first year and a half I had it by anyone but my cat (she loves walking on it). Then I read about people setting up computers with their machines. I took a simple shelf out of my home office and set it across the bars– it is sturdy enough– and placed my old laptop on it….I loved it!
I set it at speed 4, elevation 4. This keeps my heart within the specified “aerobic zone” yet allows me to type and read as I go. Sure, I can’t type fast on it, but I can edit papers and write basic stuff. Recently I have started writing some fan fiction while I walk on my treadmill– it is light and silly and gives me a real break from my day. I get so caught up in what I am doing that I can easily go for an hour and a half and not even be aware that I am working out. I sude to get so caught up in my work that I could not exercise, so this is a great compromise. Now I do my non-essential computer stuff while walking. Sweet.
I do not, however, do the “walk all day at a slow speed” thing. I have read that walking slowly at low elevation for hours is bad for treadmills, even when the silicon lubricant is liberally applied. They simply are not made for slow speeds. That’s why I go for 4 x 4 and keep it to 60-90 minutes.
It’s great. I look forward to my sessions, which have become like a guilty pleasure only there is nothing to feel guilty about since I am doing what my body needs most to lose my computer-butt. I feel I have finally set up an exercise system I will be able to stick with.