Standing Desks & Treadmill Desks

While standing desks have received a lot of media attention over the past few years, they aren't the be-all and end-all of office fitness. Like sitting in a chair or walking at a treadmill desk, standing is an activity best enjoyed in moderation. The hazards of sitting are now well documented, of course. Legions of office workers concerned about "sitting disease" have flocked to commercial and home-made standing desks, seeking relief from back pain and hoping to reverse the metabolic damage they have incurred from years of sitting. But standing isn't without its problems. Anyone who has ever had to work a trade show booth knows that walking is easier on the feet, legs, and back [...]

Typing while on a treadmill desk is a wholly different experience than typing while sitting at a desk. With no arm rests to support the weight of the arms, the gentle swaying motions caused by walking makes it practically impossible to type without anchoring your palms somewhere in front of the keyboard. Precise mouse manipulation is also more difficult when the body is swaying, which is why some treadmill desk users prefer to use trackballs so they can anchor their hands to the trackball base and use a finger or two to move the cursor. The genius of the QWERTY keyboard was its optimization for speed and accuracy in typing given the mechanical limitations of typewriters of that time. [...]

You’ve finally done it: after years of back-breaking, hunched-over desk work, you’ve made the switch to an adjustable-height treadmill desk and are ready to start walking your way to better health. But before you step on that treadmill, you ask yourself: how high should my desk be?

A common answer for this has been to raise your desk so that your arms are bent at a 90-degree angle when you type. This is a partial solution: a 90-degree angle keeps your wrists straight when you type (assuming your keyboard is level with your desk top) and helps prevent the wrist strain and injuries that come from improper wrist posture. However, maintaining this right angle for long [...]

Much of the work in today’s offices is conducted on a computer. Indeed, a majority of our working lives, as well as a good deal of our personal lives, is spent staring at a screen. But, if improperly positioned, monitors can spell trouble for office workers by subjecting them to agonizing neck and shoulder pain.

Thankfully, these posture-related pains are easy to fix, and it begins with the right equipment. An adjustable monitor arm should be a staple in any ergonomic workstation. The Ergotron LX Monitor arm offers a wide range of adjustability in both height, depth, and angle, to really customize your monitor setup. It is a very bad idea to use a laptop without an [...]

Walking at 1-2 mph in the office might seem like a casual enough process, but treadmill desk users need to think of their feet the way professional runners do if they want hours of comfortable walking. The best strategy for staving off foot fatigue is to invest in a new pair of walking shoes that you only use on your treadmill. This will keep dirt from the great outdoors from getting on the belt and winding up in the mechanical works (creating friction between the belt and the deck) or in the motor area. Doing so will also protect your feet, especially if your office dress shoes aren't the most comfortable to wear. Whatever you do, WEAR SHOES! We’ve seen pictures on the internet of [...]

It may not seem very important at first blush, but the width of your treadmill belt is an important part of treadmill desk safety. Working while walking on a treadmill desk is - let's be honest - a bit unorthodox. Instead of swinging your arms back and forth to keep your body in balance – the way you do when you walk normally – you tether them to the keyboard and/or mouse much of the time you work, creating what in bio-mechanical terms is known as a "closed loop." This closed loop can, among other things, put a great deal of strain on your wrists, neck, and shoulders. Your gait will also change as a function of belt speed (learn about how fast you should walk on a treadmill desk for [...]