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Walking Desk

kushaldas.in

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Re: Walking Desk

#31

Post by pbhjpbhj »

whiddershins wrote: post #30
dpark wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your body is optimized for saving energy, because for millions of years starvation was a plausible outcome of wasted energy. This is the same reason sweets and fatty foods taste better than kale. You're evolved to prefer energy-dense foods. Given that you post to HN, starvation is not a likely scenario for you. Diabetes, obesity, heart failure, these are all health issues you could face, and they are not things your…

I don't think the data supports the scarcity hypothesis. Unquestionably we evolved to cope with scarcity. But humans often lived in periods of high food availability. I think it is reasonable to assume my body is evolved to deal with both high and low calorie environments, if it is functioning properly. Anecdotal data bears this out as well. There are many people, including myself, who have dramatically varied their…

>But humans often lived in periods of high food availability. //

It's not just high food availability we have - I'm a few steps away from a ton of high calorie foods and could get more sent to my house without leaving my chair. In the past, even with plentiful supply, one had to [generally] put in some effort to get food. That doesn't seem to be the case for many now.

In the scenario of high food availbility meaning there's plenty of fruit to gather (and process to save for winter) and there's plenty of deer to chase then I can see I'd get more exercise.

Re: Walking Desk

#32

Post by tfandango »

KhalPanda wrote: post #3

I'm totally not sold on the practically of so-called walking desks. Reading text on a screen whilst your head is bobbing up and down, trying to make fine-motor-movements to click and type whilst walking, sounds like a recipe for low productivity. Why not get 3 hours of real work done, followed by 1 hour of real exercise, rather than 4 of neither? Or if you're determined to combine (computer) work with exercise, a rec…

I recently completed a year long effort to convince my employer to deploy standing desks (turned out to be VariDesks). We must have hundreds of them now and many people are standing and love them.

The general concensus (currently) seems to be that 8 hours of sitting (read not ever moving around) is bad for you whether you excercise or not. I would think an under-desk bike like you describe would also be effective in remedying the problems caused by sedentary work. I'm thinking about adding a balance board like someone else here suggested.

Re: Walking Desk

#33

Post by lukifer »

This is a cool project. However, when I tried this, I hound the forced rhythm (and noise) too distracting to be productive. When I removed the treadmill and went to a pure standing desk, something magical happened: it became a dancing desk instead. I still got the high heart-rate and full body motion from jamming to music, and could trivially bounce and pace around the room when stuck and needing to think. (I'm one of those people who paces while thinking yet before this I seldom integrated this into code.)

My $.02, YMMV, etc.

Re: Walking Desk

#34

Post by egypturnash »

whiddershins wrote: post #26

I am in the minority on this, but quite skeptical of exercise for exercise's sake. If exercise isn't fun, your brain is probably trying to tell you it isn't that great for you. Yes, I've read the research but remain unconvinced, I think the "need" for constant exercise may be a symptom of an underlying physiological problem.

There is a point where exercise stops being un-fun. I'm currently around that point - I've been doing pole dance for the past few months. The first few sessions were hard as hell, but as my body got into better shape, and I started to learn some grace in the moves, it's been a blast.

It also helps that learning a style of dance engages my mind. Gives me something to focus on instead of mindlessly pumping out reps.

Re: Walking Desk

#37

Post by dragonwriter »

whiddershins wrote: post #30
dpark wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your body is optimized for saving energy, because for millions of years starvation was a plausible outcome of wasted energy. This is the same reason sweets and fatty foods taste better than kale. You're evolved to prefer energy-dense foods. Given that you post to HN, starvation is not a likely scenario for you. Diabetes, obesity, heart failure, these are all health issues you could face, and they are not things your…

I don't think the data supports the scarcity hypothesis. Unquestionably we evolved to cope with scarcity. But humans often lived in periods of high food availability. I think it is reasonable to assume my body is evolved to deal with both high and low calorie environments, if it is functioning properly. Anecdotal data bears this out as well. There are many people, including myself, who have dramatically varied their…

> But humans often lived in periods of high food availability.

Outside of the post-civilization period (which is trivial in duration in terms of timelines required for substantial evolutionary change given human reproduction patterns), I don't think sizable populations of humans have lived for significant periods of times in conditions where large volumes of food were available that didn't require substantial physical exertion to access.

"High food availability", sure, that occurred, but that only means a low risk of starvation with exertion to extract food from the environment. It is a very different thing than being able to avoid starvation while spending most of your time sedentary.

Re: Walking Desk

#38

Post by tfandango »

lukifer wrote: post #33

This is a cool project. However, when I tried this, I hound the forced rhythm (and noise) too distracting to be productive. When I removed the treadmill and went to a pure standing desk, something magical happened: it became a dancing desk instead. I still got the high heart-rate and full body motion from jamming to music, and could trivially bounce and pace around the room when stuck and needing to think. (I'm one o…

Yea, I think that's generally the idea. It's less about the standing and more about the constant weight shifting one does while standing up, everything remains engaged and you get some normal health benefit from it. My back hurts a lot when I sit in a chair all day (even a really nice chair), so I prefer to spend most of the day standing.

Re: Walking Desk

#39

Post by reirob »

ripter wrote: post #19
KhalPanda wrote: post #3

I'm totally not sold on the practically of so-called walking desks. Reading text on a screen whilst your head is bobbing up and down, trying to make fine-motor-movements to click and type whilst walking, sounds like a recipe for low productivity. Why not get 3 hours of real work done, followed by 1 hour of real exercise, rather than 4 of neither? Or if you're determined to combine (computer) work with exercise, a rec…

Don't knock it until you've tried it. I used a walking desk for over a year and loved it. It was just enough exercise to keep me focused on the code, but not too much that I was tired. The thing that does suck is using the mouse. But as a developer that's not a problem. My hands stay on the keyboard when I code.

Get a keyboard with a trackpoint [1]. It will take some time to get used, but in the end you will not need any mouse anymore with the advantage of being pretty comfortable using laptops in trains, aircrafts and on walking desks.

[1] http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/itemdetails/0B47189/460

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