A good day on the treadmill

Danny · Supporter Joined: 23 Jul 2005 Posts: 344

Two American scientists designed a desk that enables workers to walk at work and shed much more energy than they would just by sitting and working.

The walking desk a.k.a. “vertical workstation” as they like to call it is fixed to a treadmill. It enables the office workers to send emails, check invoices, write reports and burn calories at the same time.

The researchers report that by using their device a few hours a day could help obese employees loose between 20 and 30kg in a year. The walking workers had no problems adjusting to the machine. It took them only a few minutes to get used to doing two things at the time.

Professor James Levine and Jennifer Miller of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota recruited 15 people who had sedentary jobs and never did any exercise. They were to set the speed it suited them and continue working while walking on the treadmill.

The study showed that those people who used the device could burn twice as much energy by walking and working than they would do by sitting and working. The average energy burned while seated was 72 kilocalories an hour, and that burned at the walking desk was 191 kilocalories an hour. The participants' walking speed was 1.6km/h.

Walking and working at the same time caused no falls, injuries and unsteadiness and those involved in the study were so keen on keeping the devices. Each desk costs $2700 and are designed to slide over a standard treadmill.

It is predicted that by 2010, around 50% of workplaces in developed country would have “vertical workstations”.

Guest · Guest

I slid my treadmill under a pinball machine. Now I can shoot pinball while I walk on the treadmill.. was getting bored with music and books on Ipod. Now instead of thinking "Oh No, 5 more minutes".. I say I will just play one more game! It is fun

A good day on the treadmill

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