Treadmill Workstation 264
coondoggie writes "Did you know you could lose as much as 66 pounds by sweating on your PC? Well using the Mayo Clinic's vertical workstation, that just might be the weight loss wave of the future. The vertical workstation is basically a desk mounted over a treadmill that lets office workers to kill two birds with one stone — send emails, check invoices and write reports and burn calories at the same time, say Professors James Levine and Jennifer Miller of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who came up with the machine/desk. There are other things you can try as well. For example, the FPGamerunner, a USB full-size treadmill that works with any first-person shooter (FPS) game, has you covered. Walking on the treadmill moves your character through the game. Handlebars and buttons at the front of the $1,299 treadmill control your direction and fire your weapons." This seems like a lot better idea than me trying to collect Pokemon on an elliptical trainer which will no doubt one day lead to a very embarrassing obituary.
My workout (Score:5, Interesting)
It works fantastically...I find that I will stay on that bike for a MUCH longer time (roughly 30 minutes longer) if I am actively engaged with something other than my legs moving
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Meaning, personally combining fitness and play are not best because both are watered down. Meaning, you get poor cardio, but also it is not the best video game either... Just spend 20 minutes on the cardio and then you can play the game for t
Re: (Score:2)
Yes yes yes, I know that's not exactly what "they" say you should do, but you know what? In 6 months, I have lost only 20 pounds on the scale, yet I have lost nearly 6 inches off my waist.
Between my lifting, cardio, and diet, I must be doing SOMETHING right
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Get a mountain bike and find a good local trail. That's much more fun, and you'll also meet some cool people. Road bike is fine too, and you'll meet even more people on that. But if you want something more like a video game, offroad is definitely the way to go.
Mid January in Northern Ontario is not the time or the place to meet cool people while mountain biking, nor is it particularly fun. And even for those who live warmer areas, weather is still a huge factor. While riding singletrack in the rain is
Re: (Score:2)
Ok, maybe 1-2 times a week on a trainer to keep some form of base fitness.
But to use it as your sole form of cycling-type exercise all year round? That would make me insane. If it's nice out, go play outside. I don't think anybody who uses stationary bikes who then tried the real thing ever went back to going nowhere in their basement.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Come on. If I wanted to meet people, I wouldn't be training on my Murder Simulator.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I have been following the exercise plan on simplefit.org a scaled down
Re: (Score:2)
I walk to uni.
I walk to the shops.
I walk around in dark places at night with friends and discuss current events.
It's pretty good. I can't imagine walking on the spot being very interesting for very long.
Infact it would be boring and pointless.
Re: (Score:2)
(I recommend Extreme 2 for PS2, or Ultramix 3 for Xbox.)
Re:My workout (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:My workout (Score:5, Informative)
When you apply any serious force on a bike you need your arms to prevent yourself from sliding backwards out the sadle. Gaming can then become... interesting.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
With a normal bike saddle, you use your crotch more than you realize to keep the bike upright and traveling straight. You can ride with no hands on the handlebars even at low speeds. By pushing the nose of the seat right and left with your thighs you can apply a correction for the handlebar angle even if the handlebars are free to rotate. Befor
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Great (Score:3, Funny)
One consideration (Score:4, Funny)
And another (Score:5, Interesting)
Apparently the treadmill actually will sell for $495 plus S&H, once they get their store going.
And from looking at the actual manual for the thing (warning: PDF! [gamerunner.us]) it looks like it uses two USB connectors (one for keyboard, one for mouse) and the display panel is powered by two AA batteries. You'd think there would be enough bus power in two connectors to power a low-end LCD display.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
$495 seems steep for a non-powered treadmill, but you're paying for the controller anyway. Probably $15 worth of parts in the controller. The thing that makes me raise an eyebrow is that
Re: (Score:2)
Seems like it would be noisy, smelly, and a real pain to get into your home office.
Riiiight... (Score:4, Funny)
"Well doctor, someone was spawn raping us and the next thing I know, I was trying to pry my head from under the sofa. I was pwned."
My users can bearly walk and chew gum (Score:4, Funny)
Granted, IT would get called to fix the treadmill if it broke.
Re: (Score:2)
Have you ever been in a gym? (Score:3, Interesting)
Some of us need a reasonable level of quiet to be able to concentrate and work effectively.
Re: (Score:2)
Noise (Score:2)
The bigger problem is learning to type and mouse while you're moving. I had to start with the treadmill running at its lowest setting and even then it was tricky.
A second problem is your feet hurt after standing all day. The treadmill has some give to it so it's not like standing on concrete but my shoes are
Re: (Score:2)
-Jeff
Re: (Score:2)
The "keep quiet" rule is enforced.
Your mileage may vary? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Your mileage may vary? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Your 100 calorie number could be just general metabolism from lying on the couch. Hmm, lying on the couch for 40 hours is like running a marathon... I've run a couple marathons this week already!
Only for the hardcore gamer (Score:5, Funny)
sweat and nano (Score:2)
The tv in the room had cnn on, so I read the little news ti
Re: (Score:2)
If any company were to actually do this, I think it would have to have them in a separate room from the regular cubes. Then they would need a way to allow anyone who comes along use them instead of having them set up for an individual person. Maybe use remote desktop or something like that. A lot of workers would nee
Game Runner (Score:2)
Even better, (Score:2, Funny)
Hard to Watch While on a Treadmill (Score:3, Interesting)
It really works (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Treadmill + GTA3 (Score:2)
It's a blast, and it really takes my mind off the boredom of jogging far more than listening to music or watching TV does.
I'd suggest you wear a helmet if you're going to try this, though:)
Whatever, won't work where I am (Score:2)
The people who need to lose the weight are the last people who will try. Let alone at work, with medical insurance as it is with government inteference either my medical bills will skyrocket as they are entitled to these machines or my medical insurance will skyrocket to support contin
Re: (Score:2)
Do you have any idea how hard it is to diet and keep your energy level up for work? Probably not, as you're skinny enough to call people 'lardasses'. Staying skin
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds like video games are a higher priority than health for you. 30-60 minutes a day on the elliptical or bike a few times a week would be a good start. The weight won't disappear overnight, but over time, it will have some positive benefits.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
But you act like entertainment is not a necessary part of life. Like you can just give up on having fun and just exercise and work, and that'll be fine. Some of us need a little de-stressing time from work, and exercise doesn't do that for me, no matter what it does for other people. Everyone's always saying how the endorphins will make you feel better, etc, etc. Doesn't work for me. I'm just as st
no perpetual motion machines (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a simple formula: calories in - calories burned = fat stored.
If calories in - calories burned = fat stored * magic_genetics_modifier then you've invented energy creation from nothing or destruction without release.
In either case, the genetics excuse for obesity is incompatible with the conservation of energy. The genetics track really means some people have faster metabolisms and burn the calories or don't have as efficient a gastro system to extract calories from food. Other people have slower metabolisms or more efficient gastro systems to get every bit out. People in the latter group need to eat a lot less and/or find a way to burn off more (exercise). Convincing people of formula #2 above is just more helpless victim mentality.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm overweight. I don't make excuses. Its because I eat too much and sit on my ass all day. My genetics don't help, but I'm going to b
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
calories_in - genetically_determined_natural_calories_burned - controllable_through_exercise_calories_burned = fat_calories_stored
So, both sides have some point. In your favor, the formula is simple. Your detractors would claim that they have such low levels of natural metabolism, that they cannot burn enough in the controllable category to make up for it. I would say that that is false, they'll just have to work harder or work less. Unfortunately for them some will ha
Re: (Score:2)
1500 calories per day - 400 calories per hour * 12 hour work days = -3300 calories per day, or ~0.45kg of fat per day. Effective maybe, but hardly healthy.
98-99% obese people do NOT have genetic causes (Score:2)
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) had an article were they looked at obese and thin people and the amount of food and exercise they did. The obese people tended to underestimate the amount of food they ate by half!, and overestimated the amount of exe
Not practical (Score:2, Interesting)
Geeks arguing about exercise (Score:3, Funny)
my experience (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Some more info..... (Score:4, Informative)
BBC covered this in detail, one of their reporters tried it out. She was less then enthusiastic about office work whilst using the thing "Shame my hands can't keep up, it took me almost five minutes to key in the above without a single mistake." (from the linked article below).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6656631.stm?ls [bbc.co.uk]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6657305.stm [bbc.co.uk]
I had this idea years ago (Score:2, Interesting)
So, what's the game? Has to be a racing game.
Re: (Score:2)
It's been done:
"The PCGamerBike is a compact exercise bike that directly interacts with PC games. Your pedal motion precisely controls your character motion in the game. Pedal forward to move your character forward, pedal reverse to move your character backward. Just plug it into a USB port and it's ready to go."
Re: (Score:2)
Not quite the same...
From the published game: Your pedal motion precisely controls your character motion in the game
in the GP, pedal motion controls available power. power is then distributed between weapons, shields, and propulsion.
To the GP: Seems like an interesting idea, and one that might sell. Go for it!
Or in real money (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Even though I'm 1.83m and well-built, it's still just a couple of kilos away from half my bodymass.
It's nice... (Score:2, Insightful)
I alre
Weight loss thru exercise alone is a fallacy (Score:5, Interesting)
Exercise has important health benefits and you should be doing it. But to lose weight, you need
to control your food intake. All the fad diets and pills are bullshit and possibly harmful as well. Eat less calories, and you will lose weight. And while you are at it, cut out all the hydrogenated fats. Eating lard would be less harmful. If you are addicted to nicotine, get your fix thru a method other than smoking or chewing.
Yes I am ranting. But I hate to see people oblivious to the fact that they are
ruining their health and quality of life by ingesting obscenely excessive amounts of harmful "food" products and nicotine delivery systems. Know why all the old people you see on the street are thin like birds? Because most of the fat people died when they were 50 years old, and the rest of them are confined in a nursing home waiting to die.
Re:Weight loss thru exercise alone is a fallacy (Score:4, Interesting)
I've used the hacker's diet (which adheres basically to what you state). But I've found I do much better just consciously eating less, and exercising a lot more. It's now cycling season, and I have for the most part recovered from the surgeries that were keeping me from exercising over the winter months, and the lbs are melting away without me having to suffer through a strict calorie-counting diet.
Granted, I'm not a typical case. Most people certainly would not do a few days a week on the bikes (a couple of days of singletrack, and a few on the road), and certainly wouldn't go through 50ish miles at a time with a lot of climbing.
But to state that exercise has little to do with weight loss depends on the type of exercise that you do. It certainly does feel a lot better to exercise more than it does to eat less. And at the intensity levels that I personally exercise at, it certainly does have a large impact. Of course, eating less is also part of the equation, but if you put the emphasis on that part, you will be miserable, at least for awhile. And who wants to be stuck in calorie-counting mode all their lives in order to control their weight?
Re: (Score:2)
I guess that explains the popularity of drive-throughs.
Who needs exercise? (Score:2)
My BMR totally sedentary 24/7 is over 3kCal/day, so I just have to sit completely motionless for nine hours to burn off that value meal...
No, not entirely. (Score:3, Insightful)
Exercise has important health benefits and you should be doing it. But to lose weight, you need
to control your food intake. All the fad diets and pills are bullshit and possibly harmful as well.
OK. 2 things...
1: Don't worry about your weight, it isn't what matters. What matters is your size. Muscle is five times more dense than fat. You exercise, you physically shrink though you may well stay the same weight or even put some on.
i.e.
Use a tape measure, not scales.
2: When you exercise, the muscle you build requires energy to run it 24/7 day. You may only expend 200 calories during the exercise itself, but if it makes your body consume 5% more calories while resting you are going to lose weight auto
Re: (Score:2)
You do not necessarily need to reduce your food intake to lose weight, though it's useful for the obese. If someone has a consistent caloric and nutritional intake, their weight will reach equilibrium. Adding exercise to the equation will cause them to lose weight -- not only does it bun calories directly, but it stimulates the metabolism and causes the body to burn additional calori
Re: (Score:2)
Well, let me just piss you off then. When I was on the Atkins diet I lose 90 lb in 9 mo, 10 lb/mo, without exercising.
I felt better physically than I have since childhood.
My cholesterol count was lower than before I began the diet.
Actually, if you run the numbers, eating lard will actually lower your cholesterol count. Un
Weight loss through diet alone is a fallacy (Score:2)
Simple. My body gets used to the 1,500-ish calories a day. I don't lose any weight, but I start feeling tired and stiff. On weekends or drinking nights perhaps I go up to 2,500. I still feel like shit, but I just gained 1,000 in excess calories.
Exercise may not be particularly useful for buring calories, but it is vital in keeping your metabolism up and ensu
Re: (Score:2)
Contraindicative (Score:2)
Some other weights to consider (Score:2)
Did you know you could lose as much as 66 pounds by sweating on your PC?
1 ounce - The weight of the tendon they're going to have to cut out of your carpal tunnel when you try using a keyboard and mouse whilst bouncing up and down on a treadmill.
300 lbs (you know it's true, regadless of the 175 you put on your drivers license) - the dead weight your company will shed when they fire your ass for the low productivity you can manage whilst bouncing around on a treadmill, unable to type quickly or use the mouse with any accuracy.
Treadmills are great things. I personally love them a
Hamster wheels (Score:3, Insightful)
Then the report about the hamster wheel desk. No irony intended, I'm sure.
Thing about the workers with the shorter work week in France that they didn't mention? They aren't really all that overweight. Thin, actually. American workers are not. I'd have to come down on the side that would say that we're fat because all we f*ing do is work. I do fifty a week at a forty job, and get warned about even three hours of OT. Thanks jeebus I ride a bike to work during the summer, or I'd have a bypass operation by now. I'm too tired to exercise -- it't no fun when you get home at eight and all you want to do is drop into a chair, not from physical, but mental exhaustion. And no, the other jobs aren't better, all the coming anecdotes from star IT workers to the contrary.
Employer solution? Well, force me out and replace me with H1B labor, sure, or make two people do my job, which already is a composite of two people's jobs. But maybe, a Habitrail! That's the solution!
Or we can reregulate our work world and have a 35 hour week, or in reality a 40. Nah. That's communism.
But we are fat, dying too young of old men's diseases, overcharged by a factor of two for medical care for a crap lifestyle, have no free time, and are less productive and by survey a hell of a lot less happy than the French. And the French companies are by no means impoverished; they just want more profits. So they want to be more like us, eh? Alors, time to get the French Habitrail desk. I hope it has a nice winerack for lunch, at least. Another thing they can do is drink at lunch...
Re: (Score:2)
Another cool thing about making us more "productive" is that it generates a large pool of former workers who are willing to work for McDonald's wages if they can just have a chance, eventually, of getting medical coverage -- in three months after starting the job. Oh, forgot about the mi
Re: (Score:2)
Ture, I work for the fr gov, and there's wine available at the office restaurant. But in the 4 months I've been here, no one has touched the stuff. I've seen people grab a bottle when there are suits (read vendors) around, or maybe the rare celebration. But bring an american in there and he'll be drunk on the spot. Liberty is the liberty to choose, not to abuse.
Anyway, back on topic, I think biking to work is the best all around solution to the work/exercise. An
So get off the corporate treadmill, already. (Score:2)
I work freelance. I set my own hours, I invoice $100/hr, and I work about three billable hours per day (average), plus another hour or so for administrative tasks and paperwork. That makes me a tidy/satisfactory income and leaves me plenty of time to spend on staying in shape and doing non-earning and hobby work, or just studying to stay up on the latest tech. And I have no commute; even though I live in Los Angeles I almost never wait in traffic.
Bah, not impressed (Score:2)
Bugger the treadmill. (Score:2)
Notes from a talk (Score:4, Informative)
-----------
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis.
Uses 2x-3x the calories of exercise.
Varies by up to 2000 calories between individuals
Note: most people of the world don't exercise
Neat explains why an active person can burn 2000 calories more than an inactive person of the same size.
Occupational NEAT:
chair bound:300
seated work: 700
standing: 1000
active: 1400
agricultural: 2300
Women work a heck of a lot more than men. (peak 500 minutes/day women vs. 320/day men)
A test that overfed people by 1000 calories a day:
Some people didn't gain weight, they just increased their NEAT.
Some central mechanisms may be regulating NEAT.
There are chemical ways to induce neat (Central Orexin)
Spontaneous physical activity may not be spontaneous!
People who fail to increase NEAT: maybe they have a NEAT defect?
They built sensors integrated into clothing to see what body postures were like.
Looks like lean people stand up more, and obese subjects sit a lot more.
Overfeed underweight people, underfeed overweight people ->
Starting obese people still sit more, Starting lean people tend to stand more.
Perhaps fat people just have 'poor NEAT adaptation'
Think about this: there's no inherent reason why we ought to be sitting all the time.
Are there ways to get us all out of our chairs?
1) Persuade them to stand (behavior modification)
2) Get rid of the chair (environmental change)
------1------
STRIPES
Targeted goals help people change behavior.
Select->Target goals->Reward->identify bariers->Plan->Evaluate->Sustain->Target Goals
Lady starts at 3 5 second walks a day.
She's working up to 5 5 minute walks over time.
Barrier: if you decide to walk your dog in the rain,the rain is the barrier. If you're massivly fat, tying shoes might be the barrier.
Planning is representative of prioritization.
------2-------
The way you change the environment - do a walk and talk meeting program (at least you get something out of it!) "Walk and talk tag - you are not to be interrupted"
Make this competitive so that the more times you have meetings that are walk and talk, the more you are 'winning'. Yet, the number of meetings will decline.
--------------
They now have a small unit that can measure your posture, etc and measures NEAT every 10 seconds.
Allows complex phenotyping of people moving, etc.
Ipod earpiece that detects activity level of the user - for each mile they walk, they get a free download. Kids get into the competition to get free downloads.
Imagine computers that are on treadmills (or exercise bikes), so you can stand and walk all day instead of sitting, People pick 1 mile an hour to work out, and burn 100 calories an hour.
If you design a school so kids can stand, they will move around a lot.
Now, there are Soda machines that say "Thirsty" - this is a cue to your brain to make you think about it, then purchase -also snack machines that say "hungry"
Re: (Score:2)
This would be great for me. I do about 30 miles a day on my bike commuting to/from work. Hell, I'd make out like a bandit at just one download per 10 miles.
Somebody get cracking on the giving me free stuff!
Veal (Score:2)
We are a special breed, we American workers.
Recumbent (Score:2)
There3 Greate!!! (Score:5, Funny)
NeoPC Power (Score:2)
If the treadmill could power my PC, I'd be more interested. Because though the actual cost savings are small, the motivation from saving the electricity might actually overbalance the idea that I'm the first generation of humans powering the Matrix.
Re: (Score:2)
The stationary bike I use shows how many watts is being generated at the current time, as you have to power the bike. I can get it to about 225W, but not for longer than 5 or 6 minutes. Lance Armstrong has been "clocked at 500W" according to Google, but probably not for long.
Re: (Score:2)
The article mentions a USB treadmill for some lame game. I wonder how
I built my own... (Score:5, Informative)
You're not running, or even walking quickly. James Levine, the guy spearheading all this NEAT stuff, recommends
Which brings me to an important point: typing speed is nearly unaffected. My error rate is probably a little higher when on the treadmill, but not enough to be an issue at all. I can still out-type nearly everyone on IM, so if the walking slows me down at all, it's a moot point anyway.
It took me a couple days to really adapt to it, but once you're used to walking and working simultaneously, it's pretty mindless. Your legs basically go on autopilot while your mind does what it needs to do. I would compare it to [car analogy alert!] driving a manual transmission in heavy city traffic. It sucks at first, but eventually it's all muscle memory and you don't have to think about it at all. You just do it.
Here are some (old, crappy) pics of the treadmill set up in my old office:
http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/7197/091806120
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/9194/091806121
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/898/0918061211
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/8043/091806121
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/6964/091806121
It looks somewhat assy, but it works really, really well. The keyboard/mouse platform is ultra-stable and does not move at all or even vibrate at the speeds I walk. With the monitors positioned the way they are, my eyes never have trouble following even small text, and I'm older with very bad vision. If anyone is considering doing this, don't even bother with a treadmill that retails for less than about $1500. You need a high quality treadmill to achieve the necessary silence and stability for office use.
Maybe it's the glasses? (Score:2)
Nonetheless, it's an appealing concept. I always thought Hemingway was on to something.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No, not really, actually. You're wrong. Keeping your heart rate high (and hence making it harder to concentrate) during exercise helps your cardiovascular system, but your metabolic rate is too high to burn fat and keep up. Instead, your body has to burn glycogen, causing you to get more tired. Only after your body has calmed down can your body begin to burn fat to r