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This is what REALLY works.

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When I first heard of treadmill desks I had an instant thought about a guy on his cell phone accidentally hitting the speed increase button, slipping, and then busting his ass. While I am sure it is a possibility and in my lifetime I will witness it via Youtube, I doubt it will be as frequent as I hope it to be.

If you are a fan of James Levines work you have likely heard of treadmill desks before. If not, give the video a watch to play catch up.

A lot of people say that a treadmill is stupid. “The idea will never work.” If they are speaking about full office integration within companies, I have to agree. I can’t see a lot of companies jumping on board to implement this type of system. The lawsuits alone must fill the minds of office managers everywhere. If you asked me if I think you should start hounding your boss for the new “TrekDesk’s” for work? You can, but your smooth talking and understanding of policy had better be amazing.

This tutorial is not for an office takeover. This desktop transformation is for home use or private offices where you have that kind of reign, but the company wont pay the bill.

The Benefits

In today’s society we sit, a lot.  The average office worker is seated for 8 hours a day. Even on lunch breaks people drive to a restaurant, where they will sit to eat.  Since I believe in physical evolution of the body, I know that one day (if things don’t change) our asses will evolve into flat padded office chair seats. All the glute ham raises in the world wont be able to save that.

If you think the benefits are just calories burned per hour, think again. While walking at just 1mph will double your caloric burn in a 8 hour period of time, it will also help to aid productivity, mental clarity, and fatigue.  I know a lot of you are thinking, “How can an activity that makes me tired help me from being tired?” I just read a  study with the  Journal of Clinical Psychology that those with fatigue saw decrease in symptoms from just walking. Lots of research points to the fact that movement in of itself on a more constant basis can be almost curative for a lot of problems with physical and mental pain that people are dealing with today. Even that blasted adrenal fatigue.

Lastly, it will help you not be fat by making your tubby butt move more.  Sorry, but I have to appeal to your vanity.

The Cost

Treadmill Desks that you can purchase are pretty expensive. As I go through life I say one phrase to myself when trying to determine if something is expensive. “Could I buy a decent used car for that amount?” If the answer is “yes,” then that item to me is expensive. With most treadmill desks you could buy a decent used car. Here are two high end models.

Our version

It may not be as sexy or come with its own ipod docking station, but it gets the job done.  Better yet it costs $20 bucks to make and can be better for you than some of the other models out there. One of the main problems with most homemade or manufactured treadmill desks is the height system for the keyboard. With this model you can adjust the height (within a limit 6-8 inches) to fit your typing needs.

Most of the websites I found that ventured into making tread desks either didn’t go into detail enough for the average person to figure it out, or went into way to much detail to where the average person is thinking “Yeah, right, I am going to just build a entire desk, sure.”

My point is, I felt this was a solid, cheap, and “lazy” alternative. You can also easily return your treadmill back normal if you decide you don’t want to use it as a desk anymore. Since I hate treadmills for running and think its one of the worst things for most people, I don’t mind disabling for use above 2mph.

What You Will Need

1 Piece of white board (home depot)

1 Package of Industrial Strength Velcro (Home Depot)

2 Styrofoam Blocks (Craft Store)

1 Tube of  Strong Glue (wood, plastic, metal, butt cheeks, strength)

1 Box Cutter

Instructions

This is beyond simple.

1-Before you buy the board measure the distance between your rails/grip bar on your treadmill. Most are going to fit with the standard board, but you may have to up the length. If so check the “Shelving” section of your hardware store VS the lumber area as their are more length options, and the price raise is just a little (maybe 10 bucks more at most).

2-Before you buy the foam try and gauge the height you are going to need to best suit your typing or reading. Remember you do not want to be hunched over your treadmill typing, that kind of defeats the purpose. If one set of blocks isn’t enough you can buy additional or smaller ones to give a slight height increase if need. You can also add it latter on top to the actual keyboard or laptop area. I highly recommend that option more as it will provide a be sturdy system and better height tailoring.

3-Once you have all your items the first thing you want to do is cut the slots in the Styrofoam for the rails on the treadmill.  This is going to be different for every treadmill. Some are circles, and some are rectangles.  What you want  to accomplish is a deep enough slot to cover at least 1/3 of the rail area. You also want the area snug, you don’t want tons of room on either side of the “gripping.” You are going to be putting the velcro in the slot area, BUT you also want it to be tight enough to where it could likely stay fit without the velcro. Make the velcro the “back up” catch to the area.

4-I will admit I am taking the pictures of this AFTER the fact. Meaning I already put this thing together, so I don’t have detailed pictures to show you of these next steps, but it is really easy and I will try to talk you through it.

5-Give the side of the board that is going to be glued a little sanding to make the area less slick. You just want the area to be slightly rougher for the glue/Styrofoam area.

6-After you have cut the slots for the grips test slide them on there. To not be too aggressive as Styrofoam is not the toughest substance in the world. All you are doing this for is to line up and mark your board of where you want it to be. Lay the board on top of your test area and mark the spots of where you are going to glue the Styrofoam to the board.

7-Glue the foam to the board in your marked space.  Since you can’t “clamp” Styrofoam take some heavy weight plates, flip the board over so that the foam is on the floor supporting the board, and place the plates on top of the board in the areas where the glue is. You don’t have to overdo it with loads of 45’s.  A good 45lb on each side will be more than enough. I waited about 4 hours before I messed with it again. If you want to be uber safe, give it longer.

8-Now you are almost done, seriously. Simple take the velcro and cut 2-3 strips (depending on length of rail/foam) and stick the “teeth” side of velcro to the rail.

9-cut the same size strips of the “fuzzy” side of the velcro and tape them along inside of the slots you cut for the rail on the foam.

10-Slide the board and foam on the railing matching the velcro to velcro.

11-Your done. That’s it, you now have a Treadmill Desktop.

Notes:

-Styrofoam is delicate.  I have never removed my board from the treadmill and I image that it might not go that well. The velcro is not so you can take it off and put it on (at least with this model). I utilized the velcro because it was a solid replacement for glue and wouldn’t damage the treadmill.

-To add height- measure where your laptop or keyboard will be and add block using the board as just a base.

-If you have a desktop system no big deal, just place the treadmill and monitor to where they can see each other. There is plenty of room for a keyboard and mouse.

Closing

This treadmill has served me well for doing work on my laptop, reading, and even playing video games on.

As a final push to think about doing this while surfing here are some stats.

Sitting and typing on the laptop=68 calories per hour
Walk/typing at 1.5 mph and incline of 2=172 calories per hour

Sitting and reading=59 calories per hour
Walk/reading at  1.5 mph and incline of 2=155 calories

Sitting and playing video games=85 calories per hour
Walk/gaming at 1.5 mph and incline of 2=190 calories per hour

That is a difference of:

3 hours = 212 calories
or
3 hours = 517 calories

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I am fascinated by the simplicity of activity importance in fat loss. I am more fascinated by the amount of people who think it is not relevant. I am not talking about exercise, I can take it, or leave it for fat loss. What I am discussing is general daily activity and its importance to energy intake.

It seems like a simple concept right? Move more, eat more. Move less, eat less. It would be a simple concept if the world wasn’t full of people who thought they are owed something. In this case that “something” they are owed is food. As society slows down in movement, it speeds up in greed, on all fronts.

In Move a Little, Lose a Lot Dr. James Levine starts out his journey of movement discovery with a tale of his own life. Bound by a desk and frozen to stillness by way of occupation, James was having a hard time achieving the happiness he wanted in his life. He found on a life changing trip that movement was the hidden culprit. He found that “sitting disease” as he playfully calls it, is slowly robbing the world one chair at a time of their health.

I really liked this book and Dr. Levine’s work. The book wasn’t what I thought it was going to be either. I was expecting it to be more technical and dry. I expected the the solution of failed daily activity to be a treadmill desk and to call it a day. Dr. Levine impressed me and went much further into detail about the change of your actual lifestyle, beyond just movement.

I am often a fan of books that have a “between the lines” meaning. What I mean is books that are painting a clear picture, but underneath there lies an extra meaning. The main purpose of the book is how to lose fat by increasing daily activity. The underlying purpose of the book is how to have a better life by being the better version of you. That better version will likely to be less overweight by more happenstance than intent. If I had it my way, that is how all people would achieve the bodies they wanted. Sadly, suffering from paralysis by analysis, there is not enough demand and hand holding to do the job.

My only bone to pick with the book is the discussion of “free foods” in forms of veggies and fruits. This is a common dietary recommendation flaw in many weight loss books, and from what I have found in my work, you simply can’t put the word “free” to food. People will take it literally and eat enough veggies and fruit to erase the deficit they have created. I hate to think with all the brilliance and effort that Levine has put into the book, he will see failed results based on these guidelines.

Overall I highly recommend the book to anyone. It is filled with great research, a few fun facts I wasn’t aware of, and it is surprisingly uplifting and positive. It leaves you feeling really good after reading it. I would promote this book as a lifestyle book as much as a weight loss book.

Grab a copy of the book Move a Little, Lose a Lot.

Double your chances of accuracy in daily activity by grabbing the ultimate tracker of calorie expenditure with it.

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