It almost seems like a universal truth of teaching … teachers must do work at home to survive. Grading papers, answering emails, prepping for that super special knock-their-socks-off activity the next day. This means a whole lot of sitting down in the evenings, A LOT of sitting down. And after reading studies about how unhealthy it is to sit down for most of the day >> Sitting Down Is Bad For You >> we decided to do something about it.
So last year, I asked my principal about switching out my traditional solid-oak-monstrosity of a teaching desk to a standing desk of some kind. Our very kind custodian found one in a storage closet somewhere and I’ve been standing at work ever since. My legs definitely felt more exhausted for the first couple of weeks, but after that, I had more energy, got more done, and knew I was living more healthy.
Then 5 months ago, my wife and I decided to invest in a standing desk for our living room. After some Internet research (and how awesome is the Internet, come on, shout out for not having to drive around from store to store just to compare products), we learned that there are bicycle desks and treadmill desks!!!
>>> Treadmill Desks
>>> Bicycle Desks
We decided to go with the FitDesk FDX 2.0 Desk Exercise Bike, mainly because we’re still not sure we’re coordinated enough to walk/run and work at the same time. Perhaps we’ll try this in the future (or not :).
We rearranged the furniture a bit so the baby can’t pull the bicycle desk over on her head very easily, found a place tucked against the wall, and viola!
And so far, we love it. We’ve ridden hundreds of miles while working on the laptop. The seat could be a tad more comfortable, but I’ve heard you can replace the seat if you want…we just haven’t got around to thinking more about that yet.
But what if I don’t want to ride the bike? You can simply lower the seat and stand behind it. Easy!
So we’re sold on it (not just because we already bought it) but because we don’t have any buyer’s remorse at all. We feel healthier and stay more awake/alert while working, which is a win-win situation for us.
TRANSPARENCY DISCLAIMER: We thought you should know that we are in no way being paid by any of these companies to discuss these products. There…we said it. 🙂
