GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
tags: health, obesity, exercise, employment
This is really nifty, if you ask me. A workstation has been designed by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota that will allow sedentary office staff to work out while they work. This workstation, designed to be used between two and three hours per day, has a treadmill, along with a plexiglass panel with two adjustable arms bolted to it that are designed to hold a computer and keyboard/mouse. The treadmill speed can be adjusted by the user, and also can be used to stand and work or to sit and work.
A study was recently published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that had 14 men and one woman take part in trials of the workstation. All of the volunteers were obese, held sedentary office jobs, and none engaged in any regular exercise. The study found that the subjects walked at one mile an hour while at the workstation. The researchers compared the volunteers' energy expenditure while using the workstation for 35 minutes every hour to that while working at their desk. They found that the 15 volunteers burned an average of 191 calories per hour using the treadmill, but just 72 calories while sitting at their desks.
"If sitting computer time were replaced by walking-and-working, energy expenditure could increase by 100 kcal (calories) per hour," said the researchers. "Thus, if obese individuals were to replace time spent sitting at the computer with walking computer time by two to three hours a day, and if other components of energy balance were constant, a weight loss of 20-30 kilograms per year could occur."
Even though I am not overweight, I would happily use one of these contraptions if I had access to it.
Cited story.
Comments
That sounds like a lot of work. Who would go for that when it's so much easier to pump yourself up with synthol?
Posted by: Mustafa Mond, FCD | May 15, 2007 4:14 PM
Here is a link to something similar it uses and exercise bike instead of a treadmill and it is less hitec.
http://www.slimgeek.com
Alison
Posted by: Alison | May 15, 2007 8:03 PM
Wasn't there something like that in an old Woody Allen film?
Posted by: Sparc | May 16, 2007 2:04 AM
So we are expected to do a job and exercise at the same time :o(
Posted by: Chris' Wills | May 16, 2007 3:31 AM
Thanks for the link; I was confused as my immediated thought was, isn't that what they serve in Quark's Bar.
Posted by: Chris' Wills | May 16, 2007 3:35 AM
Hmm, not sure how well that would work for me. Usually about ten minutes in I'm sweating like a sprinkler--some of that would likely flood the keyboard and short it out.
There is the advantage that nobody would ever ask me to a meeting a second time.
Posted by: david rickel | May 16, 2007 12:32 PM
Why not hook the treadmill up so that it is part of the power supply? The only trouble in real life, those brainiacs will probably come up with ways to outsmart attempts to make them do unnecessary physical activity. Kind of like the human mind/body does. Which is what has brought to this point in evolution, ironic isn't it?
Posted by: B.Adu | May 16, 2007 1:03 PM
If only they had a "bench" option for this contraption it would be perfect. On the other hand, my dexterity is impaired enough as it is by excess caffeine intake to increase it by jogging while on the bench.
Posted by: Tinni | May 16, 2007 1:24 PM