My Treadmill Desk

Computer programmers have a fixation on treadmills other sedentary hobbyists don&#x27;t have.<p>I have a treadmill behind the main TV couch in my house, and I sometimes use it while the TV is on. I don&#x27;t watch much TV with the result that I don&#x27;t walk on the treadmill very much, but it does sometimes happen.<p>The main treadmill problem I can see is they&#x27;re not really compatible with little kids or small animals WRT obvious hazard, so for a variety of reasons its only recently that I can safely use mine without any worry. This focus does fit in with the stereotype that startups are really good at solving 25 year old kid problems, not so good at the other 90% of the population. What doesn&#x27;t fit in is a stereotypical startup kid would live in a tiny apartment and the &quot;whiiiiiir&quot; would drive the other inmates crazy pretty quickly, to say nothing of the horrible open office fad, if my treadmill takes up 3ft x 6ft or so area and a fad style open office only allocates a 2ft x 2ft space per person this is a problem.<p>I have no complaint with this implementation and anytime I see someone do carpentry I like it. I&#x27;m just commenting on the general fascination with treadmills and desks seen on HN, its kinda funny.

No doubt sitting is bad, but don&#x27;t overthink this. The original and following studies could not possibly have controlled for every related variable. There&#x27;s just too many potential nodes and arcs.<p>If you&#x27;re in generally good health, get a standing desk and call it a day.<p>It could also be argued that having a treadmill desk leads to spending more time at the desk. Since treadmill means less work done due to fatigue + less productivity because of loss of deep focus. Overall, bad news. Standing desk + general cardio is what I recommend.

I built a treadmill desk a few years ago and I love it. It&#x27;s tough to get myself out of my chair to use it, but once I get started I like it.<p>It&#x27;s definitely not an all day solution though. I usually start feeling tired after about 45 minutes. I start sweating at about 1 hour. After 1.5 hours, I need a break. So I go back the my sit down desk.<p>The basic idea is to avoid staying in one place for a long time. Treadmill for an hour or so, then site for a while. Repeat.

All those things wrong about &#x27;sitting&#x27; are wrong about standing also. It&#x27;s the fact that your spine is supporting your weight that causes back pain and issues. If you are sitting, it&#x27;s best to use the chair back to support your back so you can recline in a 135 degrees.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitting#Posture" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Sitting#Posture</a>

<i>For me, this is not about “cardio”. This is simply about not sitting. That’s it. That’s all.</i><p>In which case, wouldn&#x27;t the author be better off with a lectern with a stool. Then they could stand or sit depending on mood.<p>It seems to me that some combination of sitting and standing are likely to have the greatest health benefits. There&#x27;s evidence that standing all the time is itself not good for you.

My personal thoughts would be that if computer interfaces catch up to the point of being able to use them in a redwood forest you won&#x27;t be looking at the redwood forest you would be working.<p>Much better to be in a controlled environment that does not distract you from your work but takes into account all the evolution that has taken place so far.

Treadmill desks can cause seasickness.<p>At least for people video chatting with you :)<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-SKWfNWS08" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Z-SKWfNWS08</a><p>Not sure how fast the person in this video is walking though. [edit: looks like he&#x27;s walking at 2-2.5mph, whereas author recommends 0.5mph]

Why does the article cut off unexpectly? Is it not finished, or is it a chrome bug?

I&#x27;m interpreting this as pretty hardcore satire. Is anyone else picking up on that?

50%-20% of my days are spent on the phone. I doubt anyone would want to talk to me if I was huffing and puffing or breathing heavily into the phone.<p>I think the best approach is to talk a jog during lunch it gets the blood flowing and make me less tired afterwards.<p>EDIT: I didnt realize you would be walking at 0.5 MPH.

Reminds me of those hamster wheels.

<i>In the middle of a redwood forest.</i><p>Is it because he &quot;loves&quot; nature so much he&#x27;ll tear down dozens of redwood trees and displace wildlife so he can casually mention it in his blog posts?<p>Anyone who destroys nature to be close to it does so out of ego, nothing more.

<i>In the middle of a redwood forest.</i><p>Is it because he &quot;loves&quot; nature so much he&#x27;ll tear down dozens of redwood trees and displace wildlife so he can casually mention it in his blog posts?<p>Anyone who destroys nature to be close to it does so out of ego, nothing more.