One of the biggest changes I made while losing weight wasn’t just wearing a smartwatch or eating less. It was simply finding more ways to move throughout the day. Being lazy, I wanted the solution to be as easily achievable as possible. So, naturally, I paired a standing desk with a walking pad (aka, a slower, smaller treadmill).
Now, I wasn’t chasing some productivity hack or trying to build the world’s most optimised home office. I just thought it sounded like an interesting idea. If I could answer emails, write reviews, and research features while getting a few extra steps in, why not?
A few years in, it’s become completely normal, and I can comfortably hit 20,000 steps a day without even realising.
Each morning I make a coffee, walk into the office, and get to stepping. Whether I’m replying to emails, writing a feature, or doing some research, it’s all taken care of while one foot diligently steps in front of the other. I often hit 10,000 steps before a hobbit has had time to think about elevenses. The best part though? I don’t have to think about it at all. And when it comes to exercise, that’s the ultimate win.
The setup
The setup is as simple as pairing a standing desk with a treadmill or walking pad of your choice. It really is that simple. For what it’s worth, I have an older standing desk from Flexispot that’s still going strong, and a WalkingPad P1 folding treadmill.
The walking pad lives there permanently. I don’t spend five minutes rearranging the office before I can use it. If something takes effort before you’ve even started, it’s much easier to find an excuse not to bother. If you are short on space though, then its compact size is superb.
For my use case though, it’s always there. For those rare occasions when I’ve had enough and feel like sitting, I have a Varier kneeling chair which I just pop on top. I often go weeks without doing this though. Normally when I’m taking a break from walking, I’m off having lunch or chilling on the sofa.
As for the pace, I’ve settled at around 3mph. Any slower and I feel like I’m shuffling along. Much faster and it becomes harder to type comfortably. Three miles an hour seems to be the sweet spot where I can forget about the treadmill completely and just get on with my day. I’ve got absolutely no interest in trying to sprint while writing a review.
Having said that, I’m actually thinking about upgrading mine at some point. Not because I have a need for speed, but because I’d quite like one with an incline. If I’m going to spend a couple of hours walking anyway, I may as well make those steps work a little harder.
Honestly, I’ve never found it tricky, but my partner gave up on the idea after half a day – mostly because she has at least five video calls a day, none of which lend themselves well to treadmill desks. Yes, I’ve tried. No, I couldn’t handle the awkwardness.
For most people though, the act of slowly walking while moving around a mouse and typing on a keyboard should be absolutely fine. Hell, I even spent last year walking backwards, just to mix things up a bit.
How do you track your steps on a treadmill desk?
Let me save you months of frustration, research, and experimentation. If, like me, you’re already invested in the Garmin ecosystem and want to track your treadmill desk steps, then you’re going to have to bite the bullet and buy Garmin’s HRM-600 chest strap. Yes, it’s more than £100, but it’s the only way you can reliably track steps in the Garmin Connect app.
Wearing a Garmin watch won’t log any steps if your wrist is hovering over a keyboard, and wearing it around your ankle is a pain. This chest strap is the only reliable solution I’ve found, for now.
The only wrinkle is an odd Garmin bug I’ve run into recently where wearing both the chest strap and my watch sometimes seems to double-count my calorie burn in Garmin Connect. Hopefully that’s something Garmin fixes, because it throws all my daily numbers out. For now, I’ve taken to leaving the watch on the table and off my wrist when wearing the chest strap.
Should you buy a treadmill desk?
If you work from home, have the space, and the budget? Then absolutely. As long as you’ve got no downstairs neighbours to potentially annoy.
Being able to smash your daily step goal mere hours after breakfast (without even feeling like you’re trying, no less!) is a pretty great way to kick off most days. I’ve even found that walking helps me focus and concentrate, and even if I am distracted or procrastinating, I’m at least still doing something worthwhile in the process.
The other thing to bear in mind is that this isn’t a magic do-it-all weight loss fix. But it is a great way to squeeze out a couple of hundred extra calories a day, while keeping your body moving and brain ticking in the process. And if you’re nailing those two things, you’re doing pretty great.
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