Treadtop Seating Options
- Lab tested
How Can You Sit Down When You’re Done Walking At Your Treadmill Desk?
If you’re lucky enough to have the space and budget for a full “sit-stand-walk” treadmill desk configuration you can keep a full-sized office chair to the left or right of your treadmill base and be all set. But what if you don’t have the space, or the standing desk you’re adding the under-desk office treadmill to isn’t wide enough to accommodate that chair in addition to the treadmill? Well, the solution exists, and it’s called, appropriately enough, a “treadtop seat.”
There are two primary criteria for any treadtop stool or chair:
- It has to be safe to sit on. Lifting a seat 6″ up on top of a walking base will add 6″ to your height off the ground. If the base of the chair is wider than the treadmill belt you could be asking for serious injury potential if the chair slips off the treadmill. So it has to be very stable up there.
- The base or legs of the chair cannot damage the treadmill belt; that’s a pretty expensive item to repair, involving ordering a replacement belt and taking the entire treadmill apart to install it. Treadmill belts are tough enough to withstand the user’s weight spread across an entire rubber-bottomed shoe, but they can get easily damaged if that weight is being distributed over only four or five contact points with the belt. (Just do the math for a 200 lbs user sitting on a four-legged chair, each leg having a contact point that is only, say, 1″ square. That’s 50 lbs per square inch of enduring pressure, and it could degrade the belt over time.)
The best treadtop seats have either a a disc base to distribute the pressure of the user’s weight over its entire circumference, or a convex soft rubber bottom like that found on many “active stools.” Some of our favorite treadtop seating options come from companies that specialize in treadmills as well, like the various treadtop seating options from iMovR.
Chair versus Stool
The key advantage of a chair is that it’s more relaxing to sit in. That of course means your core muscles are relaxed, too, which as we all know is a chief contributor to sitting disease. But in a lot of environments where treadmill desks are popular, such as 911 dispatch centers where operators may be working 12 or 16 hour shifts, this can be a necessary thing. The only thing about use a chair on top of a treadmill is that you probably want one with a foot ring, to keep your feet off the plastic motor housing, which can crack quite easily.
Active stools have the advantage of keeping your core muscles engaged while opening up the angle of your hips. Depending on the motion of the stool, the degree of movement may vary, with the best ones giving you a wide range of free movement that helps keep your spine, joints and leg muscles at optimum health.
Many of the stools can also be used for “perching” at a standing desk, not just atop a treadmill base, doing double duty.
The great thing about perching is that it takes some of the pressure off your legs, allowing you to undertake a midway position between sitting in standing. This can be a very refreshing break from prolonged standing, and it’s way healthier than just sitting with your legs at a 90-degree angle to your spine. It keeps your leg circulation open and reduces disc compression in the spine.
The Best Treadtop Stools (That Also Double as Perching Stools)
1. iMovR Treadtop Energy Stool
There are cheaper stools to be found for use with height adjustable desks, but for our money, the Energy Stool is a bargain. After testing dozens of different active stools over the years, we can say most are either too uncomfortable, have too small of a dynamic range, or don’t have enough traction grip for safety on slick floors. The Energy Stool is also perfect for use as a treadtop seat as the soft rubber base will not damage the belt, and it’s so light that it’s easy to move on and off your treadmill desk workstation. A gentle swaying motion isn’t just going to be good for your posture, joints, leg, and low back muscles, but it actually feels great on the glutes. Particularly after long periods of standing and/or walking at your desk. The Energy Stool quickly became an office favorite.
Price: $225
2. EffyDesk BohdiStool Standing Desk Stool
The EffyDesk BohdiStool is not only an active seating solution for people that want to continue to engage their bodies even when they are sitting down, it is also one of the few treadtop seating options that can be used easily and safely on top of a treadmill desk. With a comfortable cushion in either black or red, you can take a break from standing or walking as long as you need, while keeping your core actively engaged and improving circulation to your legs. The primary problem with the BohdiStool is the height adjustment range, which only gets up to 26” – barely above the seating height of normal office chairs. If you want to use it as a proper leaning stool, especially for taller users, you want it to get over 30” minimum.
Price: $200 CAD
3. QOR360 Ariel Active Seat
The Ariel active seat from QOR360 is a great ergonomic seating option, as long as you get the right size and use it correctly. While it is marketed as just a replacement for standard office chairs (and strangely with jabs at standing desks), this seat offers a great way to sit while keeping your spine and legs in a more healthy position and your core engaged for improved ergonomic positioning while working. But these benefits are best enjoyed in combination with other positions throughout the workday. While the seat cushion isn’t the most comfortable, even when used properly, customers say it is an encouragement to get up and move more. This stool also makes for a workable treadtop seat for treadmill desk users, as it won’t damage the belt with its gentle foot glides; however it lacks a footring and the cylinder post doesn’t tilt forward so it may be hard to get as close as you’d like to your keyboard without placing your feet on the fragile motor housing. QOR360 also puts their money where their mouth is and basically gives the Ariel a lifetime warranty to fix or replace any broken seat.
Price: $395
4. BackApp 2.0 Active Chair
In a rare case of the sequel being better than the original, Back App 2.0 raises the ergonomic and aesthetic bar set by the original while still retaining the unique, active imbalance feature that made the first chair such a hit. The new Back App now has impressive customization options equal to the original, and it earns our Experts’ Choice award with ease.
Price: $596
5. Varier Move Leaning Stool
The Varier Move stops just short of being a leaning chair. While it does encourage active movement, it’s far easier to sit on top of the Move than it is to use it in a leaning position. As always, you’re looking at a trade off – the Move won’t keep you as active as a Mogo or Muvman, but it’s more comfortable than most of its tilt-happy brethren. It’s also made some recent waves as an attention-boosting accessory for the classroom. Attractive and portable, the Move is a fine choice of seat for anyone after an ergonomic task stool.
Price: $399
6. Muvman Leaning Stool
Expect to see more and more Muvman lookalikes, and soon. This German made leaning stool has set the bar in terms of functionality, ergonomics, and appearance. Designed as a companion to adjustable-height desks, the Muvman is a logical addition to any ergonomic office. It’s never easy to adapt to a completely new way to work, but sometimes it’s worth it – Muvman chairs help extend time spent on your feet, while still allowing you to settle back down when you need a rest.
Price: $499
The Best Treadtop Chairs
1. iMovR McHale TreadTop StableChair
Unless you have a particularly wide standing desk that can accommodate both your treadmill base and a regular sized office chair side-by-side, the best solution for sitting at your treadmill desk is not to bend over and roll the heavy treadmill out of the way each time, but rather to use a treadtop seat of some sort, all of which we’ve reviewed. There are basically two prime directives when it comes to designing a seat that you can place on top of an office treadmill: 1) it has to be super stable and safe, 2) its base can’t damage the tread belt. The McHale StableChair is the latest treadtop chair to hit the market, and iMovR’s fourth option in this category. The McHale has a 26”-wide base, which means the only office treadmill with a deck wide enough to accommodate it is the iMovR Unsit Treadmill—for which it was specifically designed. With the adjustable height, lumbar support, and “4D arm adjustment,” you will be able to achieve your ideal position for working at your treadmill desk when you want to take a break from walking or standing. Compared to its cousin, the McHale Ergonomic Office Chair, it has had the seat pan tilt and backrest tilt removed in the name of safety and stability when resting on a treadmill deck, but has had a footring added to give the user a place to rest their feet other than the fragile plastic motor housing of their treadmill.
Price: $1,030
Discontinued Treadtop Seats
At WorkWhileWalking we’ve been lab testing and writing reviews of ergonomic office furniture and accessories for over a decade. In that time, we have seen many of the products we reviewed fall by the wayside. This is inevitable due to the cycle of continuous improvement, with new models supplanting their predecessors. Of course in some cases products weren’t as competitive as they needed to be, or their manufacturers ran into financial challenges (which very much accelerated as a result of the post-pandemic economy).
For whatever reason, these products now fall into the discontinued category, but we will still keep their reviews published and available to read. Whether you want to know more about the desk, monitor arm, etc. that you bought years ago, need more info because someone is selling one second hand, or just want to compare current offerings with what was available in the past, these reviews will remain here for your reference.
1. iMovR Tempo Sit-Stand Stool
iMovR’s two Tempo TreadTop™ seating solutions address a huge problem that many treadmill desk users contend with—how to take a break from walking or standing when your treadmill desk isn’t wide enough to accommodate a good chair alongside the treadmill. Compared to the Tempo TreadTop Office Chair, the Tempo Sit-Stand Stool is the less costly, and more versatile—in fact, we’d unconditionally recommend it as a “perching stool” for standing desk users who don’t have a treadmill. With similar ergonomic adjustability as the TreadTop Chair (only lacking a full-sized back rest), the Stool offers surprisingly good comfort—whether used as a seat, or as a standing “perch”—and is ideal for office workers looking for a portable seat they can move from the cubicle to the conference room. Boasting a lifetime warranty, the construction quality and durability of this American-made chair is exceptional.
Price: $970
2. Focal Mobis Upright Seat
Another winner from Focal. Investing in a Mobis stool is an easy way to get up on your feet without risking the aches and pains of a standing workday. While it takes some time to get used to a new way of working, the leaning position encouraged by the Mobis is ergonomic and relatively intuitive. Accessibility, combined with portability and a slick, modern aesthetic, make the Mobis the ideal entry-level seat for an upright office.
Price: $399
3. iMovR Tempo TreadTop Chair
Typical sit-stand-walk desks can often be too wide for many prospecting users who have more restricted floor space. iMovR’s new Tempo TreadTop ergonomic office chair transforms treadmill desks of any size into a fully-fledged sit-stand-walk workstation. More than any chair on the market, the Tempo Chair is perfectly suited for use atop any office treadmill. And its unique seat materials and adjustment range create a sitting experience unlike any other.
Price: $1450
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