The Walking Desk is Here!!

George Rebane

This comes to you from our ‘Live Long and Prosper’ department.  In this morning’s WSJ I saw an ad that elicited a “Sumbich!  They finally did it.”, and a startled “What?!” from Jo Ann.  Someone is introducing a walking desk into the workplace to keep us all healthier (more info here)

About ten years ago a friend convinced me to get a heavy-duty treadmill (True 550), and I started dividing my running between the outdoors and indoors.  Along the way more birthdays brought more joint creaks and injuries, so I started throwing in some walking sessions on the treadmill.  I was immediately hit by the utter boredom of the experience and understood why people stare at TVs while so engaged.  Not a big TV fan, but an avid reader, I built a simple PVC pipe frame to which I attached the top of a music stand that held a stained plywood book stand.  I built this stand with an array of peg holes that lets me put a book or magazine up there, and with a couple of appropriately placed pegs it will hold a wide variety of books open at any page and allows the pages to be turned easily. 

Friends who looked at it thought it strange that I built this PVC gizmo and asked why I didn’t just buy the manufacturer’s book stand.  Well, those kinds of stands are rickety, poorly designed, and attached to the treadmill which makes things jiggle with the footfalls of my powerful body.  I explained that I wanted a rack that was completely separate from the treadmill and therefore very steady.  Some years passed with my being able combine reading with exercise at any time of day or night.  An added benefit of such a setup is that it really makes time pass quickly.

I usually make notes and need to scribble ideas and stuff on a pad while I read.  No problem in a chair, but impossible on a treadmill.  So it immediately hit me that all I need is to design and build a writing surface that easily fits on the treadmill and I would have a walking desk.  Measure, measure, saw, saw, sand, sand, stain, stain, and it was finished.  I proudly showed it to Jo Ann who long ago got used to all such crazy things her husband proposes and sometimes builds.  To unsuspecting friends I often launched into my new walking desk sermon, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you could have one of these walking desks in an office so that … .’  Well, you get the picture.  The usual response was one of mild surprise, a lightly reined-in smile, sometimes a tolerably polite interest, and ‘We are going to have some wine, aren’t we?’

Since the treadmill lives in our game room with the poker table, my poker pals immediately saw the real use for the walking desk as another surface to pile stuff when we clear the table at the end of our congenial dinners and prepare for a serious evening of studying the game.  But, dear reader, today I am vindicated and the philistines will have to take another tack – ‘OK, if you’re so goddam smart, why didn’t you patent it and … ?’

Anyway, for those who have endured this far, let me conclude with some usage parameters for the walking desk in the event that you might be tempted to get/build one yourself.  Speed is the main parameter that determines what you can do on the walking desk.  Your speeds will vary, but my long legs permit the following.  My max walking speed is 4mph with a 5 deg upslope.  At this speed I can read light fare like news magazines and non-technical articles.  No writing at this speed, but it’s easy to step on the side panels if you need to make note and then resume on the moving track.  With 30 to 60 min of this, you’re wet and ready for a shower.  Definitely wear your exercise outfit.

At 3.5mph and 5 degrees.  All non-technical stuff is now fair game, and even some mild technical things like Scientific American articles (especially the politicized ones).  Still hard to make extensive notes, but no trouble with a couple of words and a page number.  This is my standard speed to walk a couple of miles in the morning and read a magazine like The Economist.  Time passes very quickly.

At 3mph and 5 degrees.  Very nice pace to walk an hour and really get into a book and make extensive notes.  Good for those weekend afternoon walks before a fattening dinner.

At 2.5mph and 5 degrees.  At any speed below this you can get arrested for loitering.  Yet it still works off the calories, and it seems that you can go on forever while doing the most detailed work.

Now I hope that it’s clear that you can always substitute an online laptop for the pad and surf or write to your heart’s content.  BTW, for those of you with a more discerning eye – yes, the fat guy in the green shirt is me; and yes, he does need to do a bit more walking on that treadmill to work off the gut.

   

Comments

[chip]

Cool retrofit...

For those over 50 (myself CERTAINLY included) multi-tasking in a productive way is... well, rewarding! Why? Because age, from my perspective, is logarithmic (or at least not linear); the more time we have, the quicker it passes. That's why I enjoy the Buddhist and Zen monk notion of "keeping present" -- slowing down the perception of time.

And why would anyone want to slow down time, other than the elixir of wisdom, the titillation of discovery, and the joy of family and friends?

So, walk to your ecstasy.

[Kay Pearson]

George, I really LOVE your treadmill contraption!!! I couldn't bear walking on the treadmill if I couldn't read. People don't understand how I can read and workout at the same time. I don't know how they can do it without reading! I have a little prong thing-a-ma-jig that holds my pages open. I think I'd look a little funny carrying your invention into the local workout center, but for home workout, WOW. You should have gotten a patent.