Add a desk to your treadmill for $19 and burn 600 calories a day

Wow, when I moved my road bike into my home office, I had the best of intentions. Most days however, the only muscles I'm exercising when at home are my friends "gluteus" and "maximus". As in my bum, for those not into Latin (which I took just for fun in college, but that's another story for another day).

So every once in a while my bike makes a handlebar cameo appearance in one of our videos to show off the dust. That's why I was so impressed by Jonathan Fields and his treadmill desk setup. He blogs, writes and remains productive while slowly walking on his treadmill during the day. He says he burns around 600 daily calories with a slow but steady one-mile-an-hour pace, all while writing on his computer. He's used a $19 Target shoe rack along with Apple wireless keyboard and mouse for his desk, making the implementation simple and inexpensive. In his article he has a link to a blog devoted to treadmill desks, so if you want to compute and stay healthy at the same time, this is a great resource. I should also mention that Jonathan had a high paying position but left it in favor of pursuing a self-employment career he fully enjoys. I'm in the midst of the same activities, but it remains to be seen if I'll see the success that Jonathan does. I highly recommend you read his about page for more info; it's definitely inspiring!

(via Steve Rubel's tweet)

Comments

[soda97]

it'll be nicee if you can set it up like this,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPYJnLjSEa4

makes you really wanna go harder to win and less bored

[Dave Zatz]

I've been doing this for a little while - in fact, it seems like quite a few folks have created "walking desks." I did mine on the cheap with a laminated shelf and ITVN box (review unit). We're moving in about a week, though and I'm unloading the treadmill since the complex has a beautiful, modern gym. I'll possibly figure out a portable shelf.

http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2007-08/picture-of-the-day-fitness-first/

[SeaCap]

so he uses pictures of little girls for inspiration?

awesome!

[Kevin C. Tofel]

That would be his daughter based on my reading of his About page.

[Rodfather]

That's cool. I've been thinking of doing this for a while but I'm missing the essential piece: the treadmill. I originally thought it would be cool to hook up the Xbox 360 to it.

Since becoming a bit more green aware, I may look into a passive treadmill and use it to charge my devices/batteries.

A powered treadmill uses up a lot of energy. So instead of using more energy to get into shape, why not do the opposite and use human power to charge devices and save power.

[Pam T.]

I've been thinking about doing this for some time and seeing some people's setups sent me off to build my own tonight.

1 Microsoft Wireless Keyboard and Mouse - $40 (after mail in rebate)

1 cherry laminate 9"x36' board to lay across the treadmill handles - $6

The laptop sits nicely in the magazine rack cradle and puts the monitor just a wee bit below eye level. Not bad. I could put a shelf on the wall, but we'll see if it's really needed.

If I'm going to spend two or three hours on the computer at night, at least I can multi-task!

[Sue]

If you do not want to build your own you might want to look at the TrekDesk at www.trekdesk.com. Most affordable, flexible treadmill desk I have seen.