Walking Desk

[KhalPanda]

I'm totally not sold on the practically of so-called walking desks.

Reading text on a screen whilst your head is bobbing up and down, trying to make fine-motor-movements to click and type whilst walking, sounds like a recipe for low productivity.

Why not get 3 hours of real work done, followed by 1 hour of real exercise, rather than 4 of neither?

Or if you're determined to combine (computer) work with exercise, a reclined exercise bike you can slide under a proper desk might be the better bet... at least your upper-body will be stable then.

Kudos for at least thinking about your health, anyway!

[daeken]

For the last month and a half, I've been using a treadmill desk for 1-3 hours every day. I walk at 2mph (a nice slow pace I can do consistently without thinking) and it's been absolutely fantastic. It doesn't make reading or typing difficult (the desk is well-stabilized and my Thunderbolt display is on a very heavy arm), and I'm down nearly 25lbs since I started, thanks to a combination of diet and exercise.

I truly can't recommend a treadmill desk enough.

Edit: You can see my setup (sans laptop) here: http://imgur.com/Jqfy8eG

[ripter]

Don't knock it until you've tried it. I used a walking desk for over a year and loved it.

It was just enough exercise to keep me focused on the code, but not too much that I was tired.

The thing that does suck is using the mouse. But as a developer that's not a problem. My hands stay on the keyboard when I code.

[WalterSear]

>Reading text on a screen whilst your head is bobbing up and down, trying to make fine-motor-movements to click and type whilst walking, sounds like a recipe for low productivity.

You are walking too fast.

>Why not get 3 hours of real work done, followed by 1 hour of real exercise, rather than 4 of neither?

http://qz.com/223160/why-not-even-exercise-will-undo-the-har...

[deweller]

I program all day long and I spend about half my day at a walking desk like this one.

I was distracted by the bobbing up and down for the first day. It was a little less distracting by the second day. And by the third day I didn't even notice it. I was able to get in my regular programming zone with ease.

In fact, I find that walking can often get me focused faster.

But, I am somewhat of a kinesthetic learner. Motion helps me think. So your mileage may vary.

[bluedino]

It's not a good solution for say, a programmer or graphics designer. It is good, however, for someone who makes a lot of phone calls and such.

[tfandango]

I recently completed a year long effort to convince my employer to deploy standing desks (turned out to be VariDesks). We must have hundreds of them now and many people are standing and love them.

The general concensus (currently) seems to be that 8 hours of sitting (read not ever moving around) is bad for you whether you excercise or not. I would think an under-desk bike like you describe would also be effective in remedying the problems caused by sedentary work. I'm thinking about adding a balance board like someone else here suggested.

[mortoc]

http://i.imgur.com/pnWrc.jpg I use a walking desk for about 8 hours a day. I found that about 1.2mph is my sweet spot where it doesn't affect my productivity at all. Took me a few weeks to get used to walking all day, but now it's completely natural.

[Raphmedia]

The screen looks big enough and is in front of the treadmill. This should be alright. I used to read my kindle while running on a treadmill. This shouldn't be much of an issue at all, especially since we are talking about walking slowly.

[stevepotter]

I built something similar a few years back. Walking at a snail's pace for a few hours a day was nice for bloodflow and focus. Then I started getting major headaches. I went to the doctor and couldn't figure out what was wrong.

Then I realized that my head bobbing up and down while staring at my screen was causing it. Stopped using the desk and it went away. I raised my screen to eye level and that helped. But the headaches still occurred so I reluctantly quit. Maybe I walk funny or I'm sensitive to it, but I'd like to warn anyone doing this to make sure you don't make yourself sick. Beyond that, have fun and good luck explaining it to others :)

[canterburry]

I used a walking desk for 4 months straight at 2 mph for 6 hours a day. The first few months where good but then I started getting terrible hip and joint pains. I ended up quitting because it hurt too much.

After the fact, I think I just wore out my shoes and had no dampening left in them. Get good shoes...often.

[lukifer]

This is a cool project. However, when I tried this, I hound the forced rhythm (and noise) too distracting to be productive. When I removed the treadmill and went to a pure standing desk, something magical happened: it became a dancing desk instead. I still got the high heart-rate and full body motion from jamming to music, and could trivially bounce and pace around the room when stuck and needing to think. (I'm one of those people who paces while thinking yet before this I seldom integrated this into code.)

My $.02, YMMV, etc.

[tfandango]

Yea, I think that's generally the idea. It's less about the standing and more about the constant weight shifting one does while standing up, everything remains engaged and you get some normal health benefit from it. My back hurts a lot when I sit in a chair all day (even a really nice chair), so I prefer to spend most of the day standing.

[rosser]

When the standing desk thing got boring for me, I added a balance board instead of a treadmill.

[kushaldas]

I use bigger fonts and I code all day. Having no problem after first 30 minutes.

[at-fates-hands]

Funny, one of the companies I was contracting with last summer got so wrapped up in this craze, they devoted an entire room to walking desks. You could go in there when you wanted and work. They have 8 treadmills rigged with a desktop so you could plug in your laptop and mouse and work while you were walking.

Never saw more than two or three people in there at a time, but the company made a big deal out of it. It looked pretty awkward, even when people were walking really slow.

[eglover]

Even if I did this, I'd be too embarrassed to put such a picture on the internet.

[cfpg]

Why would you be embarrassed about something you do? It's your reality.

[zwieback]

Has anyone tried a chord keyboard with a walking desk, something like the Twiddler?

http://www.handykey.com/

I imagine it would enable faster walking speeds.

[matznerd]

How fast can you type with one of those?

[reustle]

I built one of these too! http://reustle.io/blog/cant-stand-sitting

[whiddershins]

I am in the minority on this, but quite skeptical of exercise for exercise's sake. If exercise isn't fun, your brain is probably trying to tell you it isn't that great for you. Yes, I've read the research but remain unconvinced, I think the "need" for constant exercise may be a symptom of an underlying physiological problem.

[dpark]

Your body is optimized for saving energy, because for millions of years starvation was a plausible outcome of wasted energy. This is the same reason sweets and fatty foods taste better than kale. You're evolved to prefer energy-dense foods.

Given that you post to HN, starvation is not a likely scenario for you. Diabetes, obesity, heart failure, these are all health issues you could face, and they are not things your body is evolved to avoid, because they were comparatively minimal issues for millions of years.

The "underlying physiological problem" is that we are just not evolved to overeat and be sedentary.

[egypturnash]

There is a point where exercise stops being un-fun. I'm currently around that point - I've been doing pole dance for the past few months. The first few sessions were hard as hell, but as my body got into better shape, and I started to learn some grace in the moves, it's been a blast.

It also helps that learning a style of dance engages my mind. Gives me something to focus on instead of mindlessly pumping out reps.

[newman8r]

I have done this with a recumbent bike and it's pretty enjoyable.

[yitchelle]

Love to see a picture of a setup of if you have any?

[vxNsr]

What's that book you seem to have a thousand of?

[kushaldas]

It is a very old detective story series, written in Bengali. I recently bought all parts together. Finished reading them.

[CoffeePower]

This seems like it would be difficult to work on

[angersock]

Oh god, it's a battlestations thread. On HN. For shame. :(