HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 06-16-2015-13 (8) INFORMATION ITEM
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Orange County
Asset Management Services
Jeffrey E. Thompson, Director
June 11, 2015
Memorandum to: Bonnie Hammersley, Orange County Manager
From: Jeff Thompson, Director, Asset Management Services
RE: Sit to Stand Work Environment Information Item
Attachments:
"5 Health Benefits of Standing Desks", Joseph Stromberg, Smithsonian.com
"Walking Alive", Susan Orlean, The New Yorker
Sit to stand environments involve office furniture configurations allowing either sitting or standing
positions. Recent peer reviewed studies are concluding that standing in these environments has
tremendous health benefits. Overall the ability to stand for a portion of the day leads to many benefits.
There is growing interest among County staff on the sit to stand environment. Asset Management
Services will collaborate with the Human Resources and the Health Department to provide information
on the benefits of a sit to stand work environment. Staff will develop a matrix of product types that are
available to departments and their staffs for consideration. Staff will also assemble options and
associated costs for more intensive deployment of sit to stand environments as existing furniture
depreciates and is replaced.
Below are summary;benefits described by the research by Dr. Mark Benden of Texas A&M University
(htte://sph.tamhsc.edu/eoh/faculty/benden.htmi):
Health —The use of Stand-Biased desks has been shown to improve'blood flow, and increase calorie
expenditure. This fights heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and other issues such as overall better
posture. A sit to stand desk leads to less discomfort in the back, neck and shoulders.
Productivity—there are several studies with data supporting better thought process, extra alertness,
better energy and better overall comfort.
Mental Health— Increased collaboration, improved focus and attention.
Body Chemistry—Recent research into sedentary behaviors have indicated health outcomes beyond
calorie expenditure for reducing seated time, including improved metabolic profiles, improvements in
high-density lipoprotein production, lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity, and blood glucose control. In addition
to these findings, we have input that standing muscle activity causes isometric contraction of postural
muscles which produce electromyographic and skeletal muscle LPL changes resulting in additional
biomarkers for health benefits.
P.O. Box 8181 * 131 West Margaret Lane^3rd Floor* Hillsborough, North Carolina 27278
Telephone:Area Code 919 245-2625
Fax: 644-3001
E-mail:jethompson @orangecountync.gov
2
Sit to Stand Information Item (page 2)
Furniture manufacturers have provided a myriad of solutions ranging everything from low cost desk
risers in home and executive offices to entire floors of adjustable sit to stand workstations. One can
install a simple desk riser by applying a table to a desk surface to raise the working surface height for
the cost of the additional table:
0dine axes;a,iasnal IndudeG-
Many County Departments have deployed the sit to stand environment, most notably the Orange
County Health Department. Most of the County configurations involve attaching telescoping work
surface and monitor displays, similar to the photo below.
Jolt- Aid
t �
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This cost of an assembly such as this ranges from $200 to $600 (depending upon the features of the
unit) and can be installed by the user.
3
The majority of existing office work areas can be retrofitted to a sit to stand environment by installing a
telescoping surface previously illustrated, a desk surface riser, or a more elaborate adjustable height
base (electric, pneumatic or crank). Manufacturers offer basic import products as well as high end
wood case goods incorporating sit to stand bases. About 90 percent of what is sold locally is a
standard electric base that sells in the range of$450 to $700.
There are several design factors involved in sit to stand products.
- Motor Style The preferred and better base styles incorporate dual motors that are
concealed in the each leg. This setup offers higher weight capacities, smoother
operation, quieter adjustment, and overall better aesthetics. The less expensive option is a
single exposed motor. This option provides an external motor and shaft, a noisy and less
fluid operation.
- Keypad The electronic keypad is becoming the standard. This type of control offers
electronic height readouts and multiple memory presets. This function allows the user to set
comfort and level heights with a single push button control. The cheaper alternative is a
basic up and down keypad. Most users get frustrated with this type of control due to the fact
that it is more challenging to find the heights wanted quickly.
- Fixed Width Base vs. Adjustable Width Base There are 2 options that allow for more
flexibility from a facility management standpoint. The fixed width base allows for a stiffer feel
but locks you into the use of a certain width top with little flexibility in changing the size. The
benefit is a base that is engineered for that use only, creating a stiffer feel and additional
aesthetic control. The adjustable width base is still a great feel — but allows you to use top
ranges from 24" x 42"W to 30"D x 72"W with the same base. This is very popular due to the
flexibility of moving the unit from office to office without depending on a certain work surface
size.
- Production The major shift to sit to stand environments has caused all manufacturers to
offer this option and therefore prices are constantly falling as every manufacturer brings out
a more competitive option.
- Height Range usually between 22 to 50"H
- Electric (Most Common), Pneumatic Paddle Control, and Crank
4
Five Health Benefits of
Standin g Desks
Spending more of your day standing could reduce the risk
of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer
By Joseph Stromberg
SMITHSONIAN.COM
MARCH 26,2014
There was a time when standing desks were a curiosity—used by eccentrics like
Hemingway, Dickens and Kierkegaard, but seldom seen inside a regular office setting.
That's changed, in large part due to research showing that the cumulative impact of
sitting all day for years is associated with a range of health problems, from obesity to
diabetes to cancer. Because the average office worker spends s hours and 41
minutes sitting each day at his or her desk, some describe the problem with a pithy new
phrase that's undeniably catchy, if somewhat exaggerated: "Sitting is the new smoking."
Much of this research has been spurred by James Levine, an endocrinologist at the
Mayo Clinic. "The way we live now is to sit all day, occasionally punctuated by a walk
from the parking lot to the office,"he recently said during a phone interview, speaking
as he strolled around his living room. "The default has become to sit. We need the
default to be standing."
All this might sound suspiciously like the latest health fad, and nothing more. But a
growing body of research—conducted both by Levine and other scientists—confirms that
a sedentary lifestyle appears to be detrimental in the long-term.
The solution, they say, isn't to sit for six hours at work and then head to the gym
afterward,because evidence suggests that the negative effects of extended sitting can't
be countered by brief bouts of strenous exercise. The answer is incorporating standing,
pacing and other forms of activity into your normal day—and standing at your desk for
5
part of it is the easiest way of doing so. Here's a list of some of the benefits scientists
have found so far.
Reduced Risk of Obesity
Levine's research began as an investigation into an age-old health question: why some
people gain weight and others don't. He and colleagues recruited a group of office
workers who engaged in little routine exercise, put them all on an identical diet that
contained about i000 more calories than they'd been consuming previously and forbid
them from changing their exercise habits. But despite the standardized diet and exercise
regimens, some participants gained weight, while others stayed slim.
Eventually, using underwear stitched with sensors that measure every subtle
movement, ..
.�. ... the participants who weren't gaining
weight were up and walking around, on average, 2.25 more hours per day, even though
all of them worked at (sitting) desks, and no one was going to the gym. "During all of our
days, there are opportunities to move around substantially more," Levine says,
mentioning things as mundane as walking to a colleague's office rather than emailing
them, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
Failing to take advantage of these constant movement opportunities, it turns out, is
closely associated with obesity.And research suggests that our conventional exercise
strategy—sitting all day at work, then hitting the gym or going for a run—"makes
scarcely more sense than the notion that you could counter a pack-a-day smoking habit
by Jogging," as j a it��a s� f a °�I�:�n ua 1 1:�i b° b %�,�� b II :...Nc,^d t) o r A, ,��i r)i c,s. The key to reducing the
risk of obesity is consistent, moderate levels of movement throughout the day.
Scientists are still investigating why this might be the case. The reduced amount of
calories burned while sitting (a ��:A a� H °..a..d;;;��71..E 1111.�...I..C] that standers burn, on average, 50
more calories per hour) is clearly involved, but there may also be metabolic changes at
play, such as the body's cells becoming less responsive to insulin, or sedentary muscles
releasing lower levels of the enzyme.I..�,12.n..?'.1,.)i.'.n..�.:��.�..�...�.....1..',11.)...°..a.�.I
Of course, all this specifically points to danger of sitting too much, not exactly the same
as the benefit of standing. But Levine believes the two are closely intertwined.
6
"Step one is get up. Step two is learn to get up more often. Step three is, once you're up,
move," he says. "And what we've discovered is that once you're up, you do tend to
move." Steps one and two, then, are the most important parts—and a desk that
encourages you to stand at least some of the time is one of the most convenient means of
doing so.
Reduced Risk of Type 2 Diabetes and Other Metabolic Problems
The detrimental health impacts of sitting—and the benefits of standing—appear to go
beyond simple obesity. Some of the same studies by Levine and others have found that
sitting for extended periods of time is correlated with reduced effectiveness in regulating
levels of glucose in the bloodstream, part of a condition known as ig a f ;;°.
ir,n. that dramatically increases the chance of b.yj diabetes.
1,7i(y, for instance, found that people who sat for longer periods during their
day had significantly higher levels of fasting blood glucose, indicating their their cells
became
� q,��a ii 7i f�%1, with the hormone failing to trigger the absorption of
bn�u
glucose from the blood A m ai,H d...l,..11.(..], [PDF] came to similar findings, and arrived at the
conclusion that for people already at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, the amount of
time spent sitting could be a more important risk factor than the amount of time spent
vigorously exercising.
Reduced Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
Scientific evidence that sitting is bad for the cardiovascular system goes all the way back
�r� b a of heart disease in London bus
tot the 1950s, when Ili b�a� ..II� a�� a�art �� i�a�...( n,�ir��u .�a�i�� s .:.
drivers (who sit) and bus conductors (who stand) and found that the former group
experienced far more heart attacks and other problems than the latter.
Since, a u b °a..p sa II g„� y,;' f..n... 7i that adults who spend two more hours per day sitting have a
125 percent increased risk of health problems related to cardiovascular disease,
including chest pain and heart attacks. Q b II ".II n...�..iJ 11 g„j a found that men who spend more
than five hours per day sitting outside of work and get limited exercise were at twice the
risk of heart failure as those who exercise often and sit fewer than two hours daily
outside of the office. Even when the researchers controlled for the amount of exercise,
7
excessive sitters were still 34 percent more likely to develop heart failure than those who
were standing or moving.
Reduced Risk of Cancer
A handful of studies have suggested that extended periods of sitting can be linked with
K f ,i ��� t n �u,. :i'. Breast and colon cancer appear to be most
II II �'�„ n 1� IC.II"�a I B�� "��', � IC A� �.�
influenced by physical activity(or lack thereof) a') �,��A 11..a1......a d...111ji(..]y found that prolonged
sitting could be responsible for as much as 49,000 cases of breast cancer and 43,000
cases of colon cancer annually in the U.S. But the same research found that significant
amounts of lung cancer (37,200 cases), prostate cancer (3o,600 cases), endometrial
cancer (12,000 cases) and ovarian cancer (1,800 cases) could also be related to excessive
sitting.
The underlying mechanism by which sitting increases cancer risk is still unclear, but
scientists have found a number of biomarkers, such as ;; E���°d 9..v 1)En:�..b� ,;u„ that are
present in higher levels in people who sit for long periods of time. These may be tied to
the development of cancer.
Lower Long-Term Mortality Risk
Because of the reduced chance of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, a
number of studies have found strong correlations between the amount of time a person
spends sitting and his or her chance of dying within a given period of time.
'. A a� . ..... .:!L.li..°.a..p...ir.,)...:..n............°.a..p...�!!��al.(..j�v, for instance, found that for each extra hour participants spent
sitting daily, their overall risk of dying during the study period (seven years) increased
by 11 percent / m..i °..� 111j(]y found that if the average American reduced his or her sitting
time to three hours per day, life expectancy would climb by two years.
These projects control for other factors such as diet and exercise—indicating that sitting,
in isolation, can lead to a variety of health problems and increase the overall risk of
death, even if you try to get exercise while you're not sitting and eat a healthy diet. And
though there are many situations besides the office in which we sit for extended periods
(driving and watching TV, for instance, are at the top of the list), spending some of your
time at work at a standing desk is one of the most direct solutions.
8
If you're g oin g to start doing so, b ,. splitting your time between
standing and sitting, because standing all day can lead to back, knee or foot problems.
The easiest ways of accomplishing this are either using a desk that can be
a i� or a tall chair that you can pull up to your desk when you do need to sit. It's also
important to ease into it, they say, by standing for just a few hours a day at first while
your body becomes used to the strain, and move around a bit, by shifting your position,
pacing, or even dancing as you work.
7/2/13 The New Yorker:May 20,2013
9
going to hear a bit of an odd sound,"
AMERICAN CHRONIICLES Levine sail."I'hat's my treadmill,"
Despite his warning, I didn't really
TIME, WALKING ALIVE,
hear anything clumped gr growl aseis
rept an initial.clunk and g;rtawl as his
treadmill started moving,and,anyway,
Don"t.stop moving the soft whirring;of nay own treadmill
probably cancelled it out,Lewr"rnc,who is
BY SUSAN ORLEA N fifty years old„grew up in England,and
was the sort of g;ecky kid who was happy
to stay up all night observing;his pet
,nails to sr^e how far they would move,or
/i • _" to sit in an ice <IiVcl broth for an hour to
try to figR ire out how much body heat he
j I had lost. Pretty strange for a twelve-
year-old,"I.u:wine Bald."hut this was my
calling, After medical school,at Royal
Free I lospital 'School of Medicine,in
f I london,he intemcd at the Mayo Clinic,
in Rochciter,Minnesota,and has been
with the clinic:ever since.We talked for
r d now achieved
about a mik,and when we
one Levine that I
trca dmrlll ddesk dreams the
wa al.kin g phone conversation,
two
"See,I love that, he said."One of the
greatest inventions in the world is tele-
��; phone calk on treadmills," I le added,
"That/ you've
dream adl 1mc iae Ins ver read a magazine Wh ite
ile if
i l imi nnngon a tae acdmill attllt gyre wou VC
almost worked at a treadmill desk.But
u�un w people don't lain at treadmill desks.They
walk at one or two,miles per hour,,whicli
is slow enough so that it doesn't interfere
with typing or talking or reading.L"ssen-
tially, "treadmill desk" or the variant
terns,"walking;workstation,"julst refers to
a sur6cc that's high enough to accom-
naaodate a worker who is walking on a
am writing this while wAking on a coach;and while paying;hills.I had been treadmill rattler than.sitting;on a chair.
treadmill.And now you know the eagerly awaiting the first time I would It doesn't look much different from the
biggest problem with working atatread- have a phone conversation with someone kind of standing desk that Winston
Weill c1csk:the compulsion to announce wvho was lilso walkiiag;at a trectc;lmill desk, Churchill used, Any treadmill can be
constantly that you are working, at a rhat happened not long;,ago,when I used to make a treadmill desk,though,
treadmill desk.It`s a lot nlw the early days spoke to Dr,james l.; vinc,the leading many manufacturers now provide mod-
of cell-phone Caills,when the simple fact researcher in the marvellous-sotunding~, els that are specific fiar desk use,without
that you were doing what you were doing field of"inactivity studies,"at the Mayo handrails and equipped with motors that
seemed so amazing that at most ronnversaa- Clinic's Scottsdale,fAri?<>na,campus, are designed to nun for long;hours at slaw
tions consisted largely of exclamations and the most prominentofwalking;-desk specds,_wanes Levine made his first
about the amazing}niess of the call.l got partisans.I was already on my second treadmill desk, in 1999, from one of
nay treadmill desk about three moriths mile of the day when I called him.I le those tray tables with,a t6c,9coping;base
ago,but I'Iri still in the announcement had just stepped out for coffee and was, made to fit owner an elevated hospital heed
phase.I would like to have it be known on his way back to his office, and he and a secondhand Sears treadmill that he
that I have walked while buying;shoes managed to open the door,pant down his got fi)r three hundred dollars."Voila,a
online;wvhile Photoshopping;pictures of coffee,step onto his treadmill,and start treachaaill dealt"'he said,While Levine
my cats;while e-.nailing;my son's soccer walking without ithout skipping a beat."You're had a professional 1ntereit in studying the
science of calorie burning;,his motivation
The author on her tre aadmill rdesk. GVhera she c�uP as't.rani,sFiau rze^earlerPty an c Pfr. was,also personal,l le was so chubby as a
44 THE NEW YORKER,MAY 20,2013 PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF MINTON
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7/2/13 The New Yorker:May 20,2013
10
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7/2/13 The New Yorker:May 20,2013
kid that his nickname was Pufler,,,md the molecules in the blood,Your metabolic be significant—that to be healthy and
day before lie put his desk together his rate drops to about one caloric a rnin- lease son-ic weight you didn't need to
wife had told him that tie was getting ute—just slightly higher than ifyou were grind out an hour at the gyre but could
kind of fat.1 was on my bottom a lot: (lead. Sitting for more than two hours, simply start spending more of your day
watching Monday-night footbATUes- cause,,,,the presence of good cholesterol on your feet.(Levine suggests in his in-
day-night basketball,'Simpsons'every to drop,and,in time,insulin efkctivcncss troduction that you read the book either
night,"Lcvinesaid.fie now sits,so rarely plummets,This can lead to(-,irdiovascu- standing up or pacing.)At the time,I
that colleagues have taken pimires of1iini by problems,ccrtoin kinds of cancer,de- was a runner,and Levine's gospel of tak-
seated during meals just to prove that lie pression,deep-vcin thrombosis, and Ing little walks throughout the(lay didn't
does sometimes make use of a chair. "c-2 diabetes,There is even specula- appeal to me; like many runners, J
Levine first began thinking about tion that being moderately activc—that thought that walking was boring.Also,
walking in 1999,after lie conducted a is,not sitting can delay the progression it took too much time,
study at the Mayo Clinic about why of pre-dementia to demenfia. On the other hand,I was-always a bit
some people seemed prone to gain The worst news is that hard exercise of a seeker when it came to desk chairs.
weight while others,seemed immune, for air hour day may not cancel out the I iised one of my first big paychecks to
even when they ate exactly the same damage done by sitting for six IIOLus,Ac- buy the classic I lerman Miller Acron
a The mount. s
ixteen Study Su1jects,were cording to a 2006 study by am cpiderni- chair,Then I switched it out fora Balans
fed a strictly monito.red diet and were ologist at the American Cancer Society, kneeling chair,because I had heard that
observed With What lie c"ill's"an atrocious men who sit for six hours or more daily kneeling at my desk would open my di-
degree of attention to detail"to sce what have an over-all death rate twenty per aphragni and restore my natural spine
they did differently. 'rhe study con- cent higher than irien who sit for three alignment,which sounded pretty good.
cluded,that the people.who stayed thin hours or less—in other won Is,they are But the kneeling chair hurt my knees
managed to increase what Levine calls twenty per cent more likely to die of any and made me feel as if I were sitting in-
I mn-exercise activity thermogvnesis"; Cause than melt who are active.A Uni- side giant Birkcristokk sandal,I went
that is,they moved throughout the day, vmsity College London rcview of studies back to my Acron,I heard ofpcople who
fidgeting,pacing,standing,bouncing on done between 1970 acrd 2007 of dose to used rubber balance balls as desk chairs,
the balls of their feet,and.jiggling their half million people showed that walk- but I knew that if the kneeling chair
legs.That activity,Which had mostly ing reduced the risk of cardiovascular made me feel,stupid.a big rubber ball
gone unnoticed,ended up accounting events by thirty-one per cent,and it cut would be more than I could handle,
for a slow burn of as niuchas eight hun- the risk of dying during the period of the Plus, Id read that people sometimes
dred extra calories. studies by thirty-two per cent. For rolled off them. Also,the balls were
Subsequent research,by Levine and women,sitting is especially unhealthy: known to occasionally and spectacularly
others,Was even more surprising.Sitting women who sit more than six hours,a day deflate--collapsing,as E'rgononzks Today
a lot,even if you're in good shape,is bad. die at rate tbafs forty I-Tr cent higher put it,"like the I lindenburg,"
Ifyou go,to the gyrn three times a week, than that for women who move more. I was still a devoted runner,but,by
you may feel fit,but you won't be meta- this point,I had a young kid,and I was
helically healthy. Sitting puts muscles orneone gave me a copy of Levine',, starting to find it harder to fit in my run-
into a Sort of hibernation,Cutting Off S book"Move a Little,Lose a Lot'in ning.Who had time not just to run but
their electrical activity and shutting 20 9, it was published.17he book also to warm up and then to cool down,
down the production of lipoprotein li- got lot of attention,especially because and then to shower?Also, the resolve
p,,eic,the enzyme that brcal,-s down fat Levine argued that small changes could that used to power me up sheer hills and
through ugly weather was abandoning
Me. So I ran a little less. Sometimes I
0 didn't run at all.I won(leredif I could get
back to it if I ran somewhere flat and
temprrawre-controllcd,but I lived out in
the counvy,and the closest gym was a
twenty-minute driveaway.Then,unex-
pectedly,I had to have spine surgery,and
I was tinder strict orders not to rlinor
bungee- —for
jump or skydive at least
year.Bicycling was out,too,Suddenly,I
was a walker.
Around that time,I got mysdf a Fit-
bit.,a digital pedometer that counts stepts,
and calories and tracks it all via software.
The Pat*is small and unobtrusive,so it
W111s easy to put on in the morning and
"DePolice station is that way. wear all,clay,Rather than just measuring
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7/2/13 The New Yorker:May 20,2013
12
the afore auouricl-thr-block exercise waalks called a Kangaroo,which is a platform ends—IKEA components,or milk crates
I had begun to take,it measured all my that sits on my existing desk and can be and doors., or filing cabinet,; and old
walking;,including the incidental steps I lowered if]decide to sit and work for a°t lumber.
tookwhile,say,grocryshoppirngorgct- change:.(I have yet to lower it,because I F"itbit has a community forum of
ting the maul Furthermore,at the end of haven't had the arrge to sit and work,)I people who work at treadmill desks,and
the year F'itbit sent out c-snails giving was warned that I should ease into the the Internet group Office Walkers
users the geographical equivalent of their walkingwcork life,to get used to being on (which has the slogan"Working(a)100
stela,count.(I had travelled the length of my feet f6r so long;and to adjust to the calories per hou?)noun has more than a
the"Tigris River.)There was also the slightly odcl sensation of°typing while thousand inembers.The group irrostly
hnlla£nit aLlClitional alttr.ictioti of c(ompe- walking,although the first day I wvalkcd discusses issues like.the challenges of
titian. My husband and several of our two miles without really even noticing, using a mouse whale walking,but there
friends had I"itbits,and$we could see one My computer monitor jiggled a bit when are occasionarl surpri;cs,like the confes-
anc°other's step count online.The.rccom- ]started,but,nonce I shored that asp with sion s(onae time agobyLuke DeskWalker
nnended daily goal was ten thousand an adjustable:leg that came with my (not his real murre,Tm guessing)about
steps,but people on the leaderboarcl were treadmill desktop,it was a normal work- how working on a treadmill has helped
racking;up as many as fifteen thousand day,just in motion.finlike after a session ruin Glance."The thing is I can't daarnce.
or snore.'4a11e became ruthless.. Soule- at tlne gy7m orgoi g out flor a nm,1 wasn't Normally,"Ind skWdker posted,saying
times nnyhalsbaaYdwcaaald palASe l-c fore he hot and sweaty.I totally killed on the that he thought being in motion on his
got undressed for bed,discreetly check step count that night,and there was no treadmill all clay had given him a ncw-
his step count against mine,and then amount of clog walking, my husband hound talent fior shimnnyi ng,"Of course
mention,as if it had just occurred to him, could do to catch kip. I have to be listening to music,"he
that he thought the dog Gould use a little added, "Anyone else experience this
more fresh air before going to sleep. I orking while walking on a tread- same effect?"
knew exactlywhat he was tip to,so while Wmill may seem kooky,but Levine There are a few things about work-
lie walked the clog I paced around the is determined to make it mainstream. ing on a treadmill that are problematic.
bedroom. Ile tested the desks with a group of Drinking,coffee is a known haazirrl.If
The thing with walking,though,is more than three hundred volunteers at you go too fast,phone calls will be punc-
that it really sloes take a lot of time. the Maye, Clinic, all of whom liked tuated by gasps for air,which can lend.
When l ran,I could whip through five them,Lcvinc says,except for one per- the conversation a desperate duality.
miles in fiorty-five minutes,but walking son,but he didn"t like working oan a eom- Anyonc who visits your office will forget
the same dktance would take fiorever. pater anyway. Levine then partnered what he or she came to talk to you about
When I lived in New York City, I with Steelcase, the office-furniture and will spend at lest ten minutes ask-
w,alked all the time,just to get errands company,and in 2007 they introduced ing you all about your treadmill desk.
done,but 1 had moved to the l Judson the first official treadmill desk—a sleek, And then there's that annoying habit of
Valley,and then to Los Angeles,which adjustable setup that costs rnore than telling everyone that you're walking;
mcant—well,,you know."Making pco- four thousand dollar,,,. Levine hopes while you're working,although there's as
ple less sedentary raises a practical ques- that treadmill workstations will eventu- good chance that,with time.,the urge to
tion " Levine said."E:vcrybody is busy. ally become cheap enough fior everyone make that announcement will subside.
I low arc lv oplc going to get those extra to use^,but he says he wanted the`heel- Levine thinks that walking could
houn aofrnow:mcnt?You have toconvert case imprimatur right away,in order to make ukmythingbetter—not onlylncaldn
chair time to walking time." "professionalize"the desks and make: but socicty,and culture,and Life."Chair-
Voihr,the treadmill desk.I'm not sure them seem more than"kitsch,"Corpo- dorn is hugely affecting humans," he
where:or hose I first heard about the con-- rations,including Aetna and Coogle, said."No one has really imderstexod what
traption,but I found out that several and institutions, like Arizona State we have lost by sitting all the time."I°Ie
people I knew had one,In fact,.I learned [University, have begun offering ent reminisced a bit about his childhood,
that two of my l+itbit friends whose;step ployees treadmill desks,and last month when lie would walk to town with his
counts were astronomical were working the Oregon Ilcouse 'Committee on grandcnnothertodo the shopping,seeing
at treadmill desks, so suddenly those I leslth Care approved a pilot program neighbors along the way. I could hear
numbers made sense,Multitasking!Still, to test the use of treadmill desks by state that he had turned off his treadmill,and
cd thered;1,had seen so many treadmills employees. he told me that he was about to head.
at garage sales,barely broken in,Would A store of treadmill-desk comparnics home. As we were saying goodbye,
I be adding; another? This seernned have sprung up in thepastfewyears,in- he mentioned that some people end up
different,though.A treadmill at my desk cludiing TreadDesk,Trek-Desk,Exer- walking a half marathon (luring the
wouldn't require time set aside to use it, peutic, the human Solution, Ergo workday.
because it would be part of nay every- Desktop,and Lrgotron,and a number "Wow,"1 said..
day life. of Web sites have instructions on how "Worn is the point!"Levine saki.
I ended tap buying a.LifeSpan tread- to make your own by retrofittirng an or- I died some quick math:if kept work-
naill designed specifically to use under a Binary treadmill and building;an ele- ing a few more hours,matybc I could do
desk,and a computer stand/desk gismo vated work surface using; odds and a:100,
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