More US Workers Replacing Desk Chairs With Treadmills
The phenomenon of U.S. office workers' replacing their chairs with treadmills is sweeping home offices and corporate headquarters alike, the New York Times reports.
This development is at least partially attributed to the research of Dr. James Levine, whose 2005 Mayo Clinic study showed that, of folks who work in offices, the most fit are the anxious types who are constantly moving, whether by walking back and forth between co-workers' desks or nervously tapping their feet. Going off of those findings, Dr. Levine constructed himself a low-speed treadmill-desk and found it to be beneficial to the health of less squirrelly workers such as himself.
Treadmill-desks are beneficial to everyone, though. Let's face it, while those aforementioned types of anxious movement might serve to distract, they're not quite as effective as real workouts. But there's more: Some treadmill-workers interviewed in the Times piece claim that exercising helps them to work harder at their jobs.
Although we don't see treadmill use becoming as pervasive in the workplace as, say, texting on the job, we can't help but foresee an increasing number of companies and individuals incorporating the activity into their office environment. It's not as crazy as it sounds -- a few companies, including Salon.com and Mutual of Omaha, have already acknowledged those potential benefits by implementing treadmill workstations in their offices.
Now, all those offices need are a good projector and Google Maps' Street View, so that they can truly make all those go-getters feel like they're really going places. [From: The New York Times]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brad Rhoads said 5:57PM on 9-19-2008
>Now, all those offices need are a good projector and Google Maps' Street
There are people taking vertual walks accross the country. For example see http://www.treadmill-desk.com/2007/07/walking-across-america.html
Please join our community of treadmill desk users at http://officewalkers.ning.com.
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Lance said 11:23PM on 9-19-2008
Treadmill desks work, problem is the WalkStation is too expensive. I like the TrekDesk for its features and its price plus it works with existing treadmills. I found it at www.trekdesk.com and also found a lot of interesting information there about the benefits of this product.
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