Michael Pratt asked me recently:
Do you still use your treadmill desk? Do you continue to find it beneficial? I love the idea of these things, but worry a little that I might tire of it in practice, or that it might be difficult to work at it for long periods.
It may seem a perfect opportunity to revisit my old walking desk blog post, but that just raises the guilt level I feel every time I see the thing unused. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I don’t use it much anymore, though I do believe I lost some weight and generally felt healthier when I was using it regularly.
It can be difficult to walk and type. The treadmill runs as slowly as .5 miles per hour, and that helped me to get started. Eventually, I found two miles per hour a comfortable rate and would work at that for hours at a time. But I lost the knack of it after a long period of travel and had trouble getting started again. One of the problems was that as the treadmill aged, it could no longer properly work at the slow speeds, or without a high elevation angle. The higher speed meant that I couldn’t simply ease into it as I had at first, and the higher elevation angle left me in a less comfortable typing position.
That could all be justification, but it’s what seems to have happened. Still, while I was doing it regularly, it was easy and convenient. I may have just convinced myself to try it out again.