I Want One of These
If you’re like me, you sit at a desk most of the day when you’re in your office, talking on the phone, answering e-mails, and working on the computer. I usually exercise in the early morning, but often, by mid-afternoon, I’m feeling pretty sedentary.
My friend Judy also works from home, but has recently eschewed her desk in favor of standing at her kitchen counter working on her computer. “I don’t like to sit all day,” she tells me.
Well, sedentary workers, take heart! Steelcase has come up with the Walkstation, a height-adjustable workstation with an integrated treadmill. This innovative product is the result of an alliance between Steelcase and James Levine, MD, PhD, of the renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Designed primarily for corporate work environments, the Walkstation combines Steelcase’s knowledge of ergonomics and workplace design with Dr. Levine’s research on non-exercise activity thermogenesis (N.E.A.T™) – the energy expended during everyday activity.
Dr. Levine’s proprietary N.E.A.T. research suggests that increased physical activity among sedentary workers may benefit the workplace environment and increase the overall health, focus and productivity of a workforce that is typically desk-based. Designed to encourage more movement by walking slowly at work, Dr. Levine estimates that users of the Walkstation have the potential to increase energy expenditure by 100 calories per hour when walking at a 1 mph rate. Thus, if obese individuals were to replace time spent sitting at the computer with 2-3 hours per day of walking computer time, and if other components of energy balance were constant, actual weight loss may result.
“The Walkstation is not intended to provide a gym-style workout in the office; its purpose is not to cause users to raise their heart rates or work up a sweat,” Dr. Levine says. “For office workers, the majority of the workday is spent sitting in front of a computer. The premise of this Walkstation is simply to increase movement while working, and for users to enjoy the health benefits of that movement.”
What a great idea. Priced at $3,500-$6,000, the Walkstation is intended for the corporate marketplace, but who’s to say it wouldn’t be appropriate for those healthcare workers whose primary work is office work? What’s more, healthcare organizations could really make a statement about promoting healthy lifestyles by embracing this product. Maybe insurance companies would offer premium discounts for those organizations that purchase Walkstations for their employees.
The patents pending Walkstation is the first in a series of office furniture products developed by Details (a unit of Steelcase) in collaboration with Dr. Levine. I look forward to more good stuff from them.
For more information on the Walkstation, go to http://www.steelcase.com/na/walkstation_products.aspx?f=30670.