Just Build IT – DIY Treadmill Desk

The number one resolution that we all pledge either privately or publicly is to improve our health this year. We want to lose weight be healthier and be more productive. We make this as our goal, but get frustrated with the logistics of how to make this happen. The most concise and proven method to lose weight is summed in one phrase, “Eat Less – Move More.” Now that may seem too simplistic, but the best things in life are simple and easy to make effective. How can we work into our day the opportunity to move more with all this work piling up as well as so many things we do today are tied to a computer screen.  If you are handy and creative a DIY Treadmill Desk may just be the trick.  Of course there is always the option to re purpose an existing treadmill (or even a cheap one from Craigslist) by adding on a TrekDesk.  Or the even simpler rout of just buying a treadmill desk, for that, make sure to check out the article on treadmill desk reviews.

Drill for building a treadmill desk
DIY Treadmill Desk

For Your Health

It is encouraged by most leading health and fitness authorities to take at least 10,000 steps per day and while that sounds easy to do it is anything but easy. We all need to make a conscious effort to make the time to exercise, but with all the pressing details and time need to get this report done, finish reading this book or report and when we get this report done, we want to check in on Face book or check out our favorite sites for what is happening and keep us up to the minute in the world in which we live. It is great that we took the time to go to the gym and watch the subtitles on the televisions that the weird guy next to you chose. It would be nice to simply take a walk, and be able to multitask with getting work done, surfing the web or skyping our mother or favorite relative that we have been feeling guilty we haven’t spoken with sooner. Well the best inventions are those that finds a need and fills it.

Time Management

Taking the time to fill multiple needs at once can be the best use of our time. That is why the use of a DIY treadmill desk might just be the perfect solution. Being able to put your electronic life which has been resolved to being used on the couch or at a desk chair which negatively works against our ability to make good on our goals to move more back into the improvement of our physical life. We’ve all tried to park farther away from the front door of the supermarket, but when the cart is heavy and that creepy van is parked out there, we nix that pretty fast. We try to take another lap around the floor on our way to the water cooler, but next thing you know your boss is telling you that you are milking the clock and not being as productive as you should be so, you get watched like a hawk to sit more, eat more and pretend to be more productive when you feel like crap inside. There is another solution, and we must make it fit into our life.

Simplicity

Of all the exercises and equipment that goes with them none is so simple as the treadmill. Try putting the computer desk on that Tony ‘Something’s’ Gazelle or on to the Nordictrack, heck with a bike or a recumbent bike, aren’t we back to sitting and just moving our legs? The stair stepper would make us feel as we are never going to climb this corporate ladder and the spinning class makes you feel like you are just spinning your wheels. At least with the treadmill it keeps us grounded to not think too highly of ourselves as we are working away and being just a step or two better than a hamster on a wheel, but we won’t be as pudgy as the hamster.

Here comes the next excuse, but I’m not that handy and then when you see the multi-hundred dollar price tag on the ones manufactured you start making your ‘hu-rumpfs’ and a little of ‘Tim the tool-man’ starts welling up inside of you. You may not have all the specialized tools, saws, routers, drill-bits or biscuit-makers the manufactured guys have but you have smarts, and the resources you may not have realized you had. Most hardware stores like Lowe’s or Home Depot provide board cutting for a small fee and being that you can easily find the plans online that tells you exactly how long each board need to be cut too, with a little fortitude and the ability to purchase a power drill at Harbor Freight for $25 bucks or less you really have no excuses. Plus if pressed to divulge how you built it you can either put your chest out and say you did it all yourself or if they see the minor flaws you can tell them you have people who custom built it for you and you didn’t want that perfect look that you see in the box stores. If you have any more excuses, you can just look at the pictures online of dorky fat guys who have built their own and say to yourself, ‘If HE can do, so can I,” and you can and you will love it.

DIY Treadmill Desk

Take the time to measure your treadmill carefully and measure twice, especially if you are going to take on the task of cutting the boards yourself. Heed the wisdom from Ben Franklin and ‘Measure twice, cut once;’ instead of wisdom of that brilliant uncle we all may have who says, ‘I’ve cut this board three times and it’s still too short.’ Make the time to paint it after you have gotten it done and you can make it either blend into your room or stand out as the individual that you are, but use it and use it some more. Don’t give yourself and out to do things on the couch, but make it happen when you are working you are standing and on a slow walk. Be sure to keep it light, no one really walks faster than 3 to 3.5 miles per hour, so if you want to go faster, jog, but make the computer work be passive like just reading as you will have a heck of a time jogging and trying to keep your hands on the keys and if you did, you’ll probably sprain something and have to call your favorite chiropractor to put you back in shape and that will be just one more excuse to not use your DIY treadmill desk. Make it a goal to use it at least for 10-15 minutes on a slow walk every day for 21 days. 21 days is the length of time it takes to form a solid habit and when you are at the end of these three weeks it will be not just a habit you are trying to form, but change in your lifestyle that will benefit you for many more years that you will probably be adding to your life.

Image: Flickr / Mark Hunter