7 More Variables To Consider When Building A Treadmill Desk

I wrote about seven of the most important considerations for your treadmill desk, and here are another seven variables for you to take in to consideration.

1. It Is A Work Place

Forget every notion about a treadmill desk as a novelty or something you should just throw together without a second thought. You need to put as much thought and consideration in to your treadmill desk as you did your regular desk. Construction, positioning, lighting, computer setup, preferred keyboard, all of these human factors should be taken in to account and given due consideration.

It is one thing to just slap a project together, as a prototype, to see if you like the idea, but once you have done that, it is time to step back and do the job properly. Get a proper desk for yourself, constructed by you, a professional carpenter, or purchased off-the-shelf and ready to go.

Get a decent computer, keyboard and mouse. Purchase a second monitor that you can work with, which will be positioned at a slightly greater distance than your current desktop monitor is.

Do not skimp on the important parts, the desk, monitor, keyboard and mouse, when putting your treadmill desk together. The treadmill, believe it or not, is the least important part in all of this project, but the one that most people concentrate on, because hey, it is the biggest part of the investment, right? No, no it is not; do not ignore the far more important human factor components.

2. Stand Up Straight

Standing up at your desk makes you interact in a slightly different fashion than if you were slouched in an Aeron in your cubicle.

You hold your body more erect when you walk and consequently, because of this, the angle of your arms changes and this causes your hands to fall at a slightly different position that is comfortable for typing, consequently the keyboard is lower than if you were sat at a desk.

The monitors also need to be elevated so you are not suffering constant neck strain, looking down at the monitor.

If you lower your keyboard elevation, and the display monitor is on the same plane as the keyboard, e.g. if you are using a laptop, the monitor drops down too, making it difficult to interact with, over an extended period of time.

3. The Two Tiers

A large flat desk at a uniform height just does not work for when you are standing up and walking. I have tried several different experiments and the best option I have come up with so far is the two-tier desk. One-half of the desk is for keyboard and mouse, the other half is for monitors, laptop and other electronics.

Everything you do immediately in front of you, e.g. interact with mouse and keyboard, needs to be lowered two to five inches, below their normal desk height. Everything else, such as video monitors, should to be elevated four to eight inches above normal desk height.

By adjusting the height of these two components your interaction with your treadmill desk will be a lot less tiring and stressful.

4. Accuracy Is Not An Option

You need to forget about accurate, high-speed touch typing when walking faster than 1.7MPH. Artwork too, forget about that. It might be possible, but I have yet to produce any artistic results I am happy with when walking on my treadmill.

It is an unfortunate fact that your body motion when walking will affect your fine motor skills. From personal experience, I have noticed that my typing speed drops from a creative thinking 60WPM to about 25WPM if I am trying to keeping my typing errors down.

You might be scoffing at 60WPM as a top speed, but people rarely hit 100WPM if they have to think and write at the same time, if you are getting better than 40WPM with accuracy whilst thinking and walking at the same time, I applaud your efforts but also question the quality of your thoughts. 😉 And let me know how you did it so I can learn the trick too. 🙂

5. Get Lippy

Due to the vibration of you typing and walking, small objects have a habit of walking off the edge of the desk. Your iPhone, your PSP, your memory cards, stacks of CDs, everything walks and it is not due to sticky fingers at the office.

One day all of these objects are perfectly placed on your desk, the next they are hanging over the edge of the desk, ready to fall when you are not paying attention.

If you are constructing your own desk, installing a small lip around the edge of the desk helps immensely as does the super-grippy neoprene surface they include on some mouse mats.

Fry’s Electronics in California sell large sized mouse mats that are ideal to cover your desk surface with, if putting an edge lip on your desk is not an option.

6. Double Up!

Because I have to keep a regular sit-down desk, in addition to my treadmill desk, I generally need two of everything, one for each desk. Two laptop docking stations, two keyboards, two sets of headphones, two mice, two wrist rests, two mouse pads, and so on.

The addition of an extra desk can be initially expensive but once everything is setup just how you want it, the actual cost of a treadmill desk, compared to the overall health benefits are negligible.

You can also compare the cost of a treadmill desk against a gym membership, after you have factored in travel time to the gym, changing clothes, extra laundry, running shoes, etc, along with all the gym membership dues, gym membership quickly adds up.

Generally, if you are paying $80/month for your gym membership, you will pay for almost any treadmill desk you could conceive, including all of the additional electronics such as a computer and new monitors, within 3 to 5 years of usage.

7. Do Not Disturb The Water

I should not need to say this, but I advise you to keep electronics on a lower shelf or an upper shelf, but not on your keyboard area for one simple reason: I have lost count of the number of drinks that have been spilt over the desk because of the ungainliness introduced by people walking on a treadmill.

Perhaps I am just clumsy, but I keep my laptop on the upper tier of the desk and my keyboard, mouse and drinks on the lower tier. Knock the glass, can or mug over, no big deal, the treadmill and floor and perhaps the keyboard and mouse just get wet (which is why it is important to have a splash proof keyboard), and your valuable laptop, PSP, iPhone, and other paraphernalia that abhors water, remains safe and sound.

8. Bonus! External Monitors

I mentioned this briefly in an earlier point, but working on external monitors is practically a must. If you use a laptop, the lower height of the laptop screen induces neck strain and reduces oxygen intake when your head is inclined downwards.

Get an external monitor set up on your treadmill desk and give both your neck and your eyes a break.

Do you own a treadmill desk and have tips or tricks to share? Send them my way and I will write them up in a new article.