| In: Healthy Lifestyle Changes, Weight Loss Tools
Healthy Multitasking: Mayo Clinic and Steelcase Create the Walkstation
Now you can walk while you work, not just walk to work, thanks to the Walkstation, which Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic created. Dr. Levine discussed the Walkstation in an interview with The Grand Rapids Press on October 25, the day the Walkstation was unveiled. Read more after the jump.
“What we have done is taken science from the lab to a product that could potentially help millions and millions of people,” said Levine, by phone Wednesday from New York.
“I think it’s the next iPod. Everybody is going to want one.”
But the price tag will be a little higher, at about $4,000.
The Walkstation, the first product of the new FitWork line, was to be unveiled in the Steelcase showroom in New York this afternoon and was to be featured on “Good Morning America” this morning.
Steelcase won’t begin taking orders until Nov. 19, but there already is a long list of companies eager to buy. Each Walkstation takes about six weeks to build. There also is a version that gives the user the option of sitting or walking while working.
In an interview with ABC News, Dr. Levine discussed the benefits of the Walkstation:
He measured the calorie burning capacity of sedentary versus walking workers and discovered that just standing on your feet burns an extra 20 calories an hour. And walking is even better. So he came up with a design for the treadmill desk.
Depending on age, sex and body type, a 60-minute stroll at an easy 1 mile per hour burns anywhere from 100 to 130 calories. Do the metabolic math for a typical eight-hour day, and you get a potential weight loss of up to 40 pounds a year —without ever leaving the office.
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Levine started himself on a Walkstation regimen — 15 minutes at the top of every hour. Within six months, he got rid of his chair.
“You simply get the hang of walking and working,” he said. “A fascinating point is, your body naturally wants to be in motion … moving while working is what we’re designed to do. It’s only a recent development that work has confined our motion — that we’ve become ‘chair-imprisoned.’ The Walkstation gives people back the opportunity to move as they’re meant to do.”
Steelcase has a special Web site with video and full product details of the Walkstation.