Treadmill workstation

(we were born to walk, not sit, 10 hours a day)

Wall bracket
I got this at a store in the U.S. called Home Depot. You also need to get two 1 x 2 inch pieces of oak, and put these in the lower track, and then screw a flat metal plate to the oak strips. The top of the metal plate is designed to fit into a slot cut into the oak shelf. The oak shelf is 10 x 3/4". Round off the edges with a file to make it comfortable for your wrists.


Shelf sliding on wall bracket
A nice feature of the design is, that the shelf can be completely slide off the wall bracket and removed for storage when not in use.


Nephronaut-eye view
Of course, we're looking at HDCN! The monitor needs to be low, so that the neck is normally flexed while working, to prevent fatigue. A phone is handy to have. Note the wireless keyboard and mouse.


Front view
This just shows the wall bracket. The wall mount for the flat screen monitor is from icwusa.com. Either the 210 series, which supports the monitor from the bottom, or the 280 series, which supports the monitor from the top. I use the 280 series with the adjustable track on the wall. I did have to modify the back of my flat screen monitor since it did not have a universal attachment plate on the back, but my monitor had a bottom support - so I needed to attach a board screwed to the bottom support that went vertically along the back of the monitor to allow use of a 280 top-support type of bracket. This is better since it keeps more of the monitor support hardware out of the way of the treadmill.


Shelf support - opposite leg
The other side of the shelf is supported by the same dimension oak board that sits on the floor. I used a piece of the same bracket that was used for the sliding wall mount, and use a wing nut to permit easy disassembly. One disadvantage is, that the control panel of the TRUE treadmill is hidden from view by the shelf, but the shelf needs to be up high, about 3-4 " above the navel of a person on the treadmill. This keeps the wrists slightly flexed and avoids pressure on the carpal tunnel associated with wrist extension. Keeping the shelf high avoids the problem of a reverse angle keyboard, where you have flexed wrists, but you really can't see the keyboard well.


Side view, with shelf slid forward
When you want to do some serious running, it only takes a second or two to slide the shelf forward and slide the monitor up against the wall.


Nephronaut at work
Shows normal working position.


Nephronaut planning his next grant proposal
It is quite convenient to have a phone on this shelf. By the way, the actual computer is behind a wall in the furnace room, to keep things neat and to ensure domestic tranquility. Do you like to pace while you're thinking or talking? No problem. By the time you know it, you have walked 3 miles! Ignore the slight belly on the nephronaut. Solid as a rock :-).


Wide angle view
Just to show that the whole arrangement is rather neat and does not take up too much space.


10:00 AM: Nephronaut walking and talking. 0.5 miles.


2:00 PM: Nephronaut still walking, talking, and smiling
So happy that he has walked for 3 miles and has burned enough calories for a piece of pie.


Walking so fast that the feet are just a blur
Usually, the optimum walking speed is about 1.5 miles/hr. 0.5 miles/hour when doing really detailed work, or I often stop. The fastest I walk is about 2.8 miles per hour. Shoulder stress: Keeping the arms on the shelf constantly can lead to shoulder stress, since the wrists are fixed, and the shoulder joint then rolls while walking. Periodically, one should let the arms drop by one's sides while walking, especially while downloading files, waiting for things to happen on the computer that don't require keyboard input. Also, while just talking on the pone. One can also stand to let the treadmill take one backward and then approach the shelf again, do pirouette's periodically - whatever it takes. It would normally be boring, but you actually lose yourself in the work.

By the way, here you an see the bottom of the vertical shelf-support. We just add a small board to increase the floor contact area. This is not attached to the floor in any way, but can be lifted slightly to slide the shelf forward or backward. The key concept for both the shelf and the monitor are, that neither should be in physical contact with the treadmill itself to avoid vibration.


Movie of treadmill workstation in operation
13 megabyte AVI file of the nephronaut in action. Sorry, I'll get around to compressing this one day.

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