I’m typing this while walking on a treadmill. 🙂 I have constructed a “walkstation” for work, in the spirit of commercial solutions like those from TreadDesk or homemade bodge jobs like those at Instructables.com. The idea to do this has been hovering around for a few years now. As soon as I saw articles on it, I thought it was a great idea, but without a treadmill of my own to try it out with, it remained hypothetical. A couple of years ago, I tried reorganizing my office into a standing desk, but that only lasted about a week and a half. The trouble with a standing desk as I saw it was that I ended up locking my knees or adopting other similar postures to try to remain in an upright position. The walking desk is much more dynamic.
Tammy always supported the idea of giving it a shot, but I prevaricated enough so that it never happened. What changed this time around was Tammy got a bit of contract work. She was contacted by a former ESL student from Europe who was completing her masters degree. The student was a German speaker who had written their thesis in English and wanted a good review for grammar and clarity. So they agreed on a rate and Tammy got to work. And she sat and she sat and she sat. And she hurt afterwards and then ended up at the chiropractor. After that, she thought I was crazy to be sitting as long as I do.
So we got a treadmill, a Horizon CT 5.2:
Tammy and I assembled it and rearranged my office so I can walk (default) or sit (when necessary) at the desk. Today is the big kickoff, having only constructed the desk on Saturday and finished painting it last night. So far, about three and a half hours of walking at one mile per hour. Yes, I’m feeling it, but in a good way, not in the painful way of the standing desk. Going to take a short sitting break now.
Here we are, halfway through the morning of Day #3. How is it going so far?
Pretty well, actually. I’m not really keeping track of how far I walk, although the math is pretty easy, given 1.0 mph and an 8-hour workday. If I stop the treadmill for a break, it resets itself, clearing the time and distance so far. No biggie. Yesterday, I made some alterations to the walking desk layout. I was starting to feel a strain in my neck which I associated with having my neck craning forward for too long. i.e. the monitor was too far away in front of me. So I changed the 12" shelf for a 16" one, moving the monitor 4 inches closer. That then changed the angles, and I was looking up too far, so I moved the shelf down two notches on the wall mounts. It could probably stand to be another notch down, but that can wait for the weekend for now.
At the end of day one, I was pretty sore and tired, but I forced myself to go to karate and then bujutsu. Of course, by the end of that I was pretty wrecked, but it really changed up the activity which I think was healthy. Mostly I felt it from the knees down, and some strain in the hips.
At the end of day two, it was mostly just the soles of my feet that were complaining. One of the things I’ve been paying a lot of attention to are my feet, given the mileage and all. I’m wearing an excellent pair of running shoes and I haven’t got any blisters yet, but there are points on the heels were there is some rubbing. It’s the same spot as where I had trouble when I picked up jogging years ago. No arch problems in sight. I think the walking is low impact enough to avoid that.
More bulletins as events warrant!
do you have to walk all day?? can’t you mix it up a bit??
Yes, I can sit down. I have set up the desk so that I can work there when the treadmill is folded up. So far, I haven’t really had a need to. I’m making sure that I’m stopping and having breaks regularly, and there have been other interruptions the last few days so that it hasn’t really been full days of walking.
So not long after I wrote that, I did take a sit-down position for about an hour. Yesterday conspired against me having a lunch break, and without the hour’s stop I was starting to feel it.
A week and a half later and it’s going pretty well. It’s gotten so that I don’t really notice the walking much. The "hot spots" on my feet which were chafing but not blistering have gone away. Also, on Friday I was starting to feel my right arch, but by Monday it was rested and there hasn’t been a recurrence. I’ve upped my normal pace to 1.3 mph from my original 1.0. It allows a more fluid gait, without so much swaying. I have also adjusted the monitor shelf downwards again and now I think it’s finally low enough. The desk is set up with the old Powerbook, ready to be a virtual desktop for my work laptop. Tested that successfully yesterday when I took a sitting break before lunch.
I could really feel the difference on Monday, when I went to the dojo for my class after work. Whereas the week before I had felt dead on my feet, this week I felt pretty normal to start the class.