I’ve been singing the praises of my new treadmill desk setup on Twitter recently. My first full week in action, I noticed:
- I logged 23 miles, without even thinking about it. Wow!
- I noticed greatly improved focus and concentration.
- I felt much more energetic, both while on the treadmill and off. No more afternoon energy slump!
- My aching shoulder and numb left arm (due to a bulging disk and pinched nerve in my neck) virtually stopped their hurting and tingling. Pain relief was an unexpected, but much appreciated, bonus.
- Last but not least, walk-dancing to a great song on Pandora is much more fun (and better exercise) than chair-dancing! (I’m thankful I work at home, though, as this could be majorly humiliating in a more public space.)
Coincidentally (or not? maybe it was prompted by my enthusiastic Tweets), a friend posted a link to Arthur Slade’s hilarious and inspiring post about his treadmill desk setup. Who knew there’s a whole movement out there? Thanks for uniting the Tread Heads, Arthur!
Anyway, a few of you have asked what my setup is. Not being as handy, patient, or thrifty as Arthur and others are, I splurged for the instant-up store-bought solution made by the good people at TrekDesk and put it on top of a Pro-Form 505 CST Treadmill. It was super easy to assemble and set up. Here’s a look at the result:
The TrekDesk comes with a sturdy metal document holder, which serves as a laptop holder in my setup (above, on right). Then, I added a Plugable USB 2.0 Docking Client and an extra monitor, rotated to portrait mode so I can see a whole manuscript page at once, or a whole web page, or whatever. I can’t image working without a dual-monitor setup, and the docking client also allows me to grab my laptop and go and come back again without dealing with tons of plugs, cables, and cords first.
This all takes up quite bit of space, unfortunately, so I had to move out of my tiny guest-room/office and into the family room, which means headphones are a must now that the kids are out of school for the summer. And it means we need a new, smaller couch as the ancient behemoth no longer fits. Darn.
So, I still have a few adjustments to make to the room, but I am loving the desk itself and the new working experience that comes from it.
I’d love to hear about your experiences with or questions about treadmill desks. Does it, or would it, work for you? Why or why not?