NEW YORK — If you’re scarfing down Christmas candy while stuck at your desk, consider the Walkstation, a combination desktop-treadmill that lets you work and work out at the same time.
The idea behind it is that a little movement over long periods of time can improve health and maybe trim weight. The target: Any sedentary worker who can walk and chew gum. The goal: Typing, talking on the phone or having a meeting while strolling at a very slow rate.
In the run-up to pig-out season, I took a three-hour stroll on the Walkstation. The verdict: My office could forgo every cake and pizza event for a year, pool the money we would have spent and buy a Walkstation. We’d all be happier.
At roughly $4,000 with discounts depending on the model, the Walkstation is aimed at employers trying to keep their workers healthy. It might also appeal to big-time multitaskers, exercise junkies and any desk jockey who’s looked in the mirror and wondered, “Who built that addition on to my butt?”
I could see the Walkstation going over well with Hollywood moguls, whippet-thin cardiologists and gaunt marathon-running law partners. Walkstation PR people say Al Roker has a prototype at work. Dr. James Levine, the slightly built, bouncily enthusiastic Mayo Clinic researcher behind the Walkstation, said he has two placed head-to-head in his office so he can conduct walking meetings.
The maker, furniture company Steelcase Inc., is marketing it as a way employers can control health care costs. While there isn’t yet a model for homes, the couch-potato appeal is evident.
Walkstation speed maxes out at 2 miles per hour, but Dr. Levine said it’s not meant to provide a gym-level sweaty workout. Instead, it’s intended to bring some daily movement to workers who spend most of their days deskbound.
To test it, I hopped on the treadmill, adjusted the desk height using up-and-down arrows until the computer screen toolbar was at my eye level, set the speed and got to work. The tray that controls the treadmill retracts so it doesn’t get in the way of your typing.
If you’ve never typed while walking, go slow. I had trouble mousing while walking four-tenths of a mile per hour. (A spokeswoman said she started at the same rate, but was gradually able to increase her speed.) Conducting a “meeting” with publicity people who sidled up to the curved sides of the Walkstation desk while I walked 2 miles an hour was no problem.
And, just for the sake of science, I surfed the Web aimlessly while walking 1 mile an hour. No problem.
The treadmill controls are simple, maybe too simple. There are start and stop buttons and inputs for weight and speed, but no incline. What I missed more was a way to track distance and calories for different users, a big omission on a machine that may end up in a break room where workers hop on for a half-hour at a time.
While I was able to concentrate on my work while walking, I almost fell off the machine a couple times trying to talk to people behind me. I can see where having a heated discussion while walking on a treadmill might be dangerous. (Although, one could argue, walking could take the edge off a dispute.)
Anyone used to the big calorie burn numbers of a vigorous workout will be disappointed. I strolled at various slow rates for an hour and a half before I’d burned the calories in one Milky Way bar. The upside: I wasn’t the least bit sweaty.
Steelcase is pitching the Walkstation as something workers can use a couple hours a day, in increments. After close to three hours on it, my feet hurt and my productivity seemed slightly lower than it is when I’m slumped in the chair by my desk.
But when I stopped walking, my mood was better than when I started. And it’s appealing to think that a little motion each day might make everyone slightly cheerier, while helping an expanding work force squeeze back into their skinny jeans.
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