Office walking without the treadmill

[catfiend]

We still don't have my office put together and patience isn't one of my strong points so I decided to try another idea I had a couple of months ago - a mini-elliptical trainer. The one I picked up is the Stamina InMotion e1000 - though I doubt that it's any different from the many others out there that look the same. Yesterday was spent getting a fake desk slapped onto the dining room table so I could use it and I'm walking at it as I type today.

This is NOT a treadmill! On the other hand, it's not bad at all.

On the plus side:
- It's very, very quiet. Not quite completely silent but very close. No motor whirring and no feet slapping down on the treadmill.
- No external power required.
- Inexpensive relative to a new treadmill.
- It actually seems to be very well built and mechanical simplicity will help with longevity.
- You can vary the workout without varying the pace by adjusting the resistance.

On the minus side:
- As the reviews on Amazon indicate, the stride is a little short. It's not as bad as it would be if you were using it for running but it's a little short. I expected this to be the biggest drawback but I adapted to this very quickly.
- There's nothing to regulate your speed. I didn't even think of this before ordering but it's hard to keep moving slowly enough that I'm not sweating. It's not hard to keep moving slowly enough to not breath hard on the phone but I'm going to soak multiple shirts a day until I get used to moving slowly enough to keep the sweating down.
- You don't completely unweight your feet. It's somewhere between just standing and actually walking in that respect.

The jury is still out on whether I'll just go ahead and use this indefinitely rather than getting an actual treadmill but at least I'm finally getting moving!

[bdrhoa]

It seems like an elliptical might require a bit more concentration. What do you think?

Keep us posted. If you switch to a treadmill it would be interesting to hear how you compare the two.

[catfiend]

Brad, it may require more concentration but I'm not sure that it's enough to worry about. The really nasty parts have turned out to be setup related. I don't have the flexibility to move fore and aft much so getting the machine set correctly is very important - ditto side to side. I've also found that it works somewhat better for me with the front of the machine elevated a bit and with some resistance. The resistance has helped to slow me down and smooth out my stride - a lot! Once I got all of that ironed out it almost disappeared. I hope that some experience on it will remove the almost.

According to the little computer on the machine I did almost 7500 steps with a bit over 1000 calories burned. The calorie thing looks high to me. The timer only goes to 99 minutes so it reset multiple times.

[Olivier Schreiber]

Back a long time ago, I tried to exercise while watch TV. I tried an exercise bike and a stepper.
In both case, I would catch myself stopping pedaling or stepping when something of interest would
appear on the TV. I am sure it would happen even more while working: If an email or a task called for some increase of focus, I would have a tendency to stop the motion I was involved with.
I think that is where the advantage of the treadmill is: it won't let you stop.

[Olivier Schreiber]

Replying to my own post and bdrhoa's comment, I just saw a few posts about manual vs motorized. Maybe a manual treadmill would see a lot of interrupted walking. I don't know because I have never tried one but the size and cost of them looks appealing.
No electrical power loading up the circuits. 2HP is 1500W, the same as a big refrigerator. My home office is already loaded with electrical equipment. I am not sure what outlet will `take' the extra 1500W.

[catfiend]

Olivier, the TreadDesk tread seems to be about the same size as the manual treadmills that I've seen spec's on and it's only rated to 1 1/2 HP (smaller belt, less resistance, less power needed.)

I've tried looking for a manual treadmill to test as I think it would work fine for me IF it's not too hard to get it rolling. That's the one downside I've always seen about the manual ones - there's so much resistance to getting them started that you need to set the incline up to start up - and the incline feature isn't motorized so you have to stop to put it back down.

[catfiend]

Proving that everyone is different. The only time I've ever been able to workout on a windload simulator or the NordicTrak is in front of the television. I got into the groove and only stopped when I realized I was completely toasted :) That and the noise are the downsides of all of the attempts that I've made so far in front of the television. If I do decide to go with the treadmill the little machine I'm working on right now will end up in front of the TV and we'll see if I've learned enough discipline to not kill myself.

[mightyshe]

Nice idea! I've added a simple pedal exerciser to my workspace ($40 at Walmart), since my work does not permit adding a treadmill. The pedal exrciser is kind of like pedaling a tricycle - very short pedal arms - but I can pedal while on the phone without any background noise or getting breathless. Brookstone makes one for about $100 that's got an electronic readout and better resistance range, plus it's heavier so it stays in place better.
I also have a very quiet exercise bike (Precor 825e) in front of the TV. I use low resistance and that keeps me from stopping when the program gets more interesting. And if the program is so-so but I need the workout, I increase the resistance.

[Olivier Schreiber]

I guess the conclusion is that when focus is needed due to an email or technical problem the tendency to stop will be less if the exercise is not strenuous.
So the question is whether a manual treadmill can be walked at such low level of effort once you get it rolling. Any recommendation? Thanks!
PS: I have seen this thread about exercise balls you sit on that supposedly make you spend as much energy as a desk treadmill because of the constant balancing and its action on the core muscles. I will try that soon.

[Olivier Schreiber]

I have been quite happy with the whole experience of a manual treadmill:
http://olivier.schreiber.googlepages.com/whitetrashtreadmilldesk
email me if you want oschreiber.ae90 AT gtalumni.org

[catfiend]

Update!

I've gotten to the point where I'm not having a problem regulating my speed but I'm not comfortable at a speed slow enough that I won't sweat at all. Not a problem for me as I telecommute. Walking slowly enough to not sound out of breath on the phone is easy now.

The unweighting the feet thing was the big issue last week. I originally wrote that it was somewhere between a treadmill and standing all day but my feet informed me the following morning that it was actually worse than just standing. In retrospect that makes sense as I'm keeping the tension down to the point that the motion is smooth so my trailing foot is providing most of the resistance to keep the leading "pedal" from plunging down. By Thursday I thought that this issue would scuttle the experiment and then Friday dawned with my feet feeling fine?? I think somewhere along the way my body must have figured out how to compensate for this - on occaision I change pace, walk backward or rock back on my heels to unweight the balls of my feet - and now it seems almost natural.

It's a pity it doesn't give good distance numbers - according to the readout I've done 159 *miles* since last Monday :) The time and step counters will have to suffice. Still not sure of the accuracy of the calorie counter but it may not be as far off as I originally thought - resisting the pedalling motion almost certainly uses more calories than just lifting a foot as the treadmill passes underneath.

One thing that I think I like about this little contraption is that the motion is sort of halfway between walking in place and turning a (very short) pair of bicycle cranks. By changing my foot position I can get more of one or the other motion which helps keep things somewhat fresh. And if it helps my riding above and beyond the weight loss I'm all for it.

[John]

This is almost exactly like what I am using, except mine is the InStride mini-stepper ( (which I actually find more comfortable using backwards, with the legs pointed up going forward, because it exercises my calves that way and puts less pressure on my knees): http://tinyurl.com/3mc7wp

One of the main advantages I like about it, is that it's easy to stop, if I need to be more steady for a little bit (using the mouse for precision work, for instance), and then I can just pick back up without having to turn anything on or off -- that was the most limiting thing I found when I was trying out various treadmill desk ideas (I had some crazy contraptions set up!). For me, using this mini stepper with my adjustable height desk (I'm using a GeekDesk frame and a door) has turned out to be the best combination I've found yet.

[bdrhoa]

I suspect it's very quite too??

What pace do you think you go at? Do you find it distracting from your work to have keep moving yourself? With the treadmill I find my movement is usually unconscious.