Treadmill Desk

I spend a lot of time at my computer.  An awful lot of time.  Probably far more than I should.

I also need to get healthy, and part of that is exercise.  A few years ago we bought a treadmill, but never quite used it very much.  I realised this was because it took time out of my day and I wondered if there was a way to combine the exercise with something I already do, so that it wasn't taking any extra time out of my day.  Then I discovered the idea of treadmill desks, both ones that you can buy and ones that you can make yourself.

From then on I was looking for a way to make this work for us.  Finally we did it!

This will only work on treadmills that have their arms a certain way.  Ones with really short arms, or arms that slope down more than this, will not work.  This is what we started with.

 

Then you will need a plank of wood or chipboard or whatever.  We used a piece that was in the shelving section in the DIY store.

You will also need tool storage clips.  These are designed for going on the wall in a shed or garage so that garden tools can be stored on the wall.

We put two on each side of the plank.  I marked the positions by putting the clips onto the arms of the treadmill, laying the plank over the top and then marking the position from underneath.  Just screw the clips on and you are ready to go.  Then turn the plank over so that the clips are underneath, hanging down place it over the arms and press down, the clips open up and grab onto the arms of the treadmill and the shelf is now quite secure, yet easily removable when you need to.  If you look back at that first picture you may be able to see the marks the clips have left on the foam on the arms of the treadmill.

Then all you need to do is set up your laptop and you are ready to walk and do your computer work at the same time.

I can walk at up to 5 km per hour and still check emails, facebook etc, although if I need to type a reply I will usually slow it down to around 4 and if it's a long email or complicated, I'll slow it down some more.

Most mornings I am on there for anything from 30 minutes to a whole hour and even do my daily bible reading on there some days too.