$160 treadmill desk

Our friend, Sarah Milstein, made a treadmill desk for $160.

Ever since learning about treadmill desks a couple of years ago from this New York Times story, I've been eager to try one. Because while I like walking, I always find it hard to carve out time for exercise. A tread-desk, it seemed, might magically solve my exercise scheduling prob. Except the appealing versions start at $4,400.
I kept hearing, though, that you could cobble one together for next to nothing. You just have to score a used treadmill and build some sort of desk on or above it. So when facing a lot of time working from home this summer, I decided to revisit the idea. Here's how I did it.

The DIY Treadmill Desk

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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futnuh

Sure X hours per day shuffling along on a tread-desk can help burn some extra calories and is no doubt better than sitting all day … but it is a very poor substitute for a brisk walk. You need a sustained elevated heart-rate to improve one’s cardio-vascular fitness. You’ve got to “break a sweat”, something I bet many tread-deskers aren’t doing.
UnnecessaryUmlaut

Is there a Hamster Wheel version for the full cubicle-rat experience?
http://lexica510.livejournal.com Lexica

It’s not meant to be an alternative to a brisk walk, it’s meant to be an alternative to sitting for 8 hours a day.
- futnuh
  
  If one simply wants to avoid sitting, a stand-up desk (sans treadmill) is sufficient. Adding the treadmill offers the illusion of getting one’s exercise in while working. The author herself states as much in the above, “Because while I like walking, I always find it hard to carve out time for exercise. A tread-desk, it seemed, might magically solve my exercise scheduling prob.”
http://twitter.com/SarahM Sarah Milstein

Well put, @Lexica.
- Donald Petersen
  
  Yes indeed. I can think of a whole lotta “very poor” substitutes that would be immeasurably worse. Obviously one needs to elevate one’s heart rate to get a real cardio workout, but is it really true that a several-hour “mosey” is actually a genuinely poor substitute for a half-hour skip-a-dee-doo-dah? Especially if you do it several hours a day, five days a week?
Sterno Dare

dogsandshoes.com is making my OfficeScan thingy go nuts. It won’t let me open the link, or any page on the site. I’ve been trying to get my office to approve one of these for a long time now.

But aside from that, Lexica is right on. Turns out sitting on your bum all day is bad for you even if you do get a real cardio workout in at some point during the day.

http://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea/2010/12/06/sedentary-physiology-part-1-not-just-the-lack-of-physical-activity/
- http://twitter.com/SarahM Sarah Milstein
  
  Yikes–I don’t know why dogsandshoes.com won’t work for you. It’s just a Typepad blog…with some Typekit fonts. Anyway, the gist is: I built a cheapo tread-desk, and I love it. :)
Martin Yu

I spent $140 on my treadmill desk and it changed my life. I work more efficiently, I’ve lost a little weight and my back is so much stronger. It took a couple weeks of adjustment getting my back and walking muscles into shape – even though I run regularly, my legs were not used to walking so much. Good walking shoes help, too. I can’t see going back to sitting.
- flarktobble
  
  @Martin (and anyone else who’s tried this) — how was the adjustment to typing while walking?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Cj-Hayes/741912941 Cj Hayes

I want a pedal bike desk that powers the computer on it.
http://twitter.com/wormhog wormhog

http://www.staples.com/Bush-Westfied-Mobile-Desk-Table-Auburn-Maple-Graphite-Gray/product_802333?cid=PS:SBD:GS:E:N:PLA:71000000000227345:58000000007550130:802333
http://lexica510.livejournal.com Lexica

If one simply wants to avoid sitting, a stand-up desk (sans treadmill) is sufficient.

As I type this, I’m standing at the sit-stand desk I’ve been working at for the past nine months. I can say from experience that a stand-up desk is not sufficient. Standing for eight hours is better than sitting, but still far from ideal.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=607675355 Brent Kirkham

If you are a healthy, normal human being, sitting at a desk is not a problem. By normal, I mean someone who actually gets some exercise in their normal daily life, like walking to work, walking/running/swimming occasionally. These things have been dropped from our normal social list of things to do. For ‘normal’ healthy people, there has never been a single study conducted that shows that exercise is beneficial. Never. Strange, I know, but no proof at all. I’m not saying exercise isn’t a good thing, but let’s get things into perspective here.

Exercise, if you are already healthy is a possible/probable bonus. If you are unhealthy, possibly overweight, diabetic (me) or suffer from any of a variety of ailments, it’s a goddamn necessity. I’d suggest that exercise alone isn’t useful (and potentially harmful) in many cases, unless accompanied by a simple change in diet. Don’t buy diet books or DVDs, ask a doctor, even the fat ones who smoke and drink.

I’ve had to change my life (slightly), feel much better, and don’t (really) want to kill anyone much these days. McDonalds may go out of business locally, I’ve supported them long enough.

Next year I’ll be running the Medoc Marathon, and I’m stoked. But for you healthy folks, you could take it in your stride with very little preparation. Except maybe for cheese, wine, oysters etc.
- Comrade7
  
  Actually, I’ve read that sitting a lot _is_ a problem even if you do exercise regularly…http://opinionator.blogs.nytim…
- Unexploded
  
  “If you are a healthy, normal human being, sitting at a desk is not a problem.”
  Science says otherwise:
  http://www.howtogeek.com/news/sitting-is-killing-you-infographic/4822/
axleworthington

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/can-exercise-keep-you-young/
jiminnc

I have a $3 bungee cord on the panel of my treadmill that I can slip a laptop under. Building a desk to put a 15″ monitor over your 13″ laptop doesn’t seem worth it.
teapot

Next week on Boing Boing:
DIY ceiling desk!
Walter Dexter

What is the point of the linked article?”I wanted a tread-desk, so I got a used treadmill and a shelf unit from Ikea to put over it.”
erin jones

As a die-hard running addict who lost the ability to run or jog, or even walk, for many years because of the recurrence of a back injury that seemed minor when I was 19 – and was entirely life-stopping when I was 33 – I understand the appeal of enjoying an intense cardio work-out every day.

I am in the process of trying to regain the ability to jog and hike after many years of physical rehabilitation. But for most people, disabled or not, walking as much as possible offers incredible benefits, both physical and mental. While I would give a pound of prime flesh, tenderloin or even quad, to be able to run or even jog again, I have found that walking 2-3 hours a day is an incredibly effective way to not only stay fit, but to rebuild or retain muscle.

I’m assuming that every BoingBoing poster is subject to the aging process. What one can do now ain’t always going to be possible. Incorporating walking into one’s day is a lifestyle change that can be pursued until death or dotage. And I find it difficult to believe that anyone with a realistic understanding of aging and injury would scoff at the benefits of treadmill desks.

OK, this topic is a sore spot for me since I’ve gone through so much effort to regain the ability to be active. So I’m being a bit bitchy. I’m done now. Different subject:

Yeah, goddamn it! When the hell are we going to see our personal batteries? Batteries that we can throw in a back pack and take to the gym. Or hook up to our home or office treadmill desks so that we can use the energy we generate. I’ve been daydreaming about this for years. Especially when I was spending a lot of time at the gym running in the midst of dozens of sweating, exerting humans.

Does anyone know? Is this a near-future possibility? BB science experts, holla?