A couple weeks ago, my girlfriend and I ordered a treadmill desk. It arrived about a week ago, and has seen heavy use already.

In this case, we ordered this set:

My goals with getting a treadmill desk were as follows:

1) Have a treadmill so I could get exercise in the mornings. In our previous apartment, there was an excercise room in the basement, which had exercise equipment. I got in the habit of working in 30 minutes of exercise in the morning before heading off to work. It gave me more energy, made it easier to be healthy, and provided a chance to listen to podcasts and stay connected with the SF/F writing and fan-cast world.

2) Have a standing desk. There have been a number of studies and bugaboos about not spending so much time sitting down. I hated how much time I spent sitting when I was a field rep, but it couldn’t really be helped – I was driving, and it’s hard to drive without sitting down. Weird, right? Having the standing desk means that I can split my day into four modes. (Walking and working, standing & working, sitting & working, reclining & reading).

3) Be able to walk and work at the same time. Since I both work from home and am a writer, I have two jobs that involve being at a computer. In order to not spend 10 hours a day sitting at a desk, and in order to be active enough to be able to not worry too much about MUST EAT THE HEALTHIEST, I was excited to be able to walk 3-4 miles a day and not have it detract from time spent working.

So. How has it actually worked?

Pretty freaking well. The model we bought can run from .4 mph to 4mph, which is enough for a more active walk/jog in the morning, as well as a 1mph average walking speed while working.

Walking while typing/laptoping turns out to be not very distracting. I don’t tend to get motion sickness, so the motion involved with walking – where my field of vision shifts even as I’m typing, hasn’t proved to be a problem.

I feel more energized, partially because I’m more active, and partially because I’m not sitting at a desk all day.

The biggest benefit is just plain feeling better – I’m excited to log time on the treadmill desk, which makes me more likely to spend more time working on my writing. I’ve been doing some walking barefoot, some in toe shoes (Vibram 5fingers), and some with my sneakers.

It was an expensive acquisition, but so far, totally worth it.