Specialists have lengthy identified that prolonged inactivity might be dangerous in your physique, rising your danger for coronary heart illness, Sort 2 diabetes and different diseases. Because the saying goes, “sitting is the brand new smoking.” On the similar time, a long time of research have proven that strolling — even just 4,000 steps a day — is nice for the thoughts and physique.
Treadmill desks — a setup involving a standing desk with a treadmill beneath it — seem to be an ingenious antidote to sedentary workplace life, and a solution to get in just a few extra wholesome steps. However are they well worth the funding?
As treadmill desks have become more mainstream, researchers have begun to ask how efficient they’re. A rising physique of research, although typically restricted, suggests they do assist maintain folks transferring, including maybe a median of two extra miles of strolling per day.
What’s extra, one small 2023 study urged common use of treadmill desks elevated folks’s power, improved their moods and, in some circumstances, even made them extra productive at their jobs.
“Being able so as to add in little bits of exercise over the course of a day can add up,” stated Akinkunle Oye-Somefun, a doctoral candidate at York College in Toronto and the lead creator of a current meta-analysis of treadmill-desk analysis. Nevertheless, he famous, “strolling on a treadmill desk is an add on, not one thing meant to exchange your common train routine.”
The key to getting essentially the most well being advantages out of a treadmill desk, and avoiding boredom or frustration, is to go in with the correct expectations and technique.