My new home treadmill arrived several days ago, and having fought off a bout of flu I have started using it.  It is positioned under my Ikea standing desk which is much MUCH cheaper than the ‘official’ ones – it is a Frederik desk like here, and they really do work well.

The treadmill is a domestic one sold by a UK reseller, although most likely sourced from China somewhere.  The important point is that it is quiet, low, and slow.  I won’t be running a marathon on this thing and it isn’t meant to go fast like a gym one.  Instead, continual slow sessions of walking will accumulate into a workout will still meaning I can take conference calls and work at the desk.

This piece has been written while using it and I have to say it is a really, really easy thing to get used to.  I was impressed by Stephen Wolfram (of Mathematica fame) who used one, and also Neal Stephenson and his diatribe Arsebestos wherein he explains just how much sitting down is killing us.  Now, I don’t take that as evidence nor my own annecdotal experience but I do observe that when I used a standing desk I never had any back pains, and when I gave up for some time and re-used an office chair I ended up with a sacro-illiac joint problem which extended painfully for some months.  So back to the standing desk, and now the treadmill, and onwards to Skeletor!^*

^* (A character in Stephenson’s Reamde who is a lore writer).