by Emma Donoghue
This post isn’t addressed to the already-fit. It’s a message of hope for total couch potatoes who have perhaps despaired of ever talking themselves into an exercise routine.
Towards the end of 2012, when I turned 43, I read a couple of articles about the dangers of sitting for long periods of the day, especially for women. Totting up how many hours a day I’ve been sitting, ever since… well, all my life, really, as schoolgirl, student, and writer… I came up with the horrifying figure of fifteen hours sitting, eight hours lying down, at best an hour on my feet (if you include cooking). I realized that despite being seven years younger than my partner, I might well die first. I always tell my kids that I’ll do my best to live to be a hundred, but that was a big lie: I wasn’t doing anything of the sort.
Around the same time, a writer friend mentioned other writers she knew who had taken to walking on a treadmill while writing. I hooted with laughter.
Then a couple of weeks later, I purchased a Lifespan DT7 treadmill desk, sight unseen. I could have tried it out in a local showroom but decided not to, in case I wouldn’t like it at first; I was hoping the enormous price would compel me to commit myself to treadmilling.
Two days of slight dizziness; a week or two of aching thighs. One friend predicted that I would fall off, because I’m famously clumsy, but it hasn’t happened yet. I could tell from the start that this was going to work for me as nothing else has, because – engrossed in writing – I just don’t notice the hours going by. At long last, I’ve managed to trick myself into movement.
I started at two miles per hour (American machine, so imperial units) and now I’m up to 2.7. I don’t have a rule for how many hours a day I stay on, but I’d say it’s rarely below two, often about four, and one glorious day hit six. It really helps that I attach my laptop to a big monitor, so I’m typing at hip level but reading at face level.
The one mistake I made was not to realize that I would need to stretch sometimes. I thought of walking as such a basic human activity that it couldn’t hurt me… and then strained my back, four months in, after an afternoon of collating a manuscript. (The physio said it was a classic injury of someone who takes up exercise for the first time.) But once I was healed I got back on the treadmill and now, a year in, I can’t imagine working without it. Tiny static shocks when I touch my laptop are all I can complain of.
I’ve read that treadmilling diminishes concentration slightly, and I’d agree; sometimes if I’m about to draft a brand-new scene, I decide to save it for when I’m sitting down with my coffee. But on the other hand, the walking wards off afternoon sleepiness. I can write, do online research and email, talk on the phone if it’s with someone who doesn’t mind my sounding slightly breathless… When I’m doing something hands-free like watching video, I lift some light weights while walking. Handwriting or video editing would be difficult, but luckily I rarely need to do either. Reading books (rather than onscreen) I save for sitting-down time.
I weigh the same as a year ago (perhaps because all that exercise makes me want lunch at eleven), but I feel much livelier. I don’t think my writing’s got better but it’s no worse either. Basically, it’s a miracle.
Emma Donoghue is a writer of drama, literary history and fiction (Slammerkin, The Sealed Letter, the international bestseller Room and – coming in April – Frog Music) who lives in London Ontario.
Amazing to read – in retrospect – how easily you were able to include a walking desk into your day.
On the static electricity shocks: Is your computer grounded? (i.e. Does the power cord send three prongs into the wall?) Are you grounded or insulated? The static shocks happen because there is a difference between the two. Most likely you are insulated.
Your choice of clothing material can make a difference. (Think of the sparks that heavy sweaters give off in the dark.) Also, I think if you touch exposed metal on your computer (such as a video port for projectors) or its stand periodically, then you could release the static charge before it builds great enough for you to feel it.
When we exercise we usually don’t lose weight, in fact we often gain weight while also getting slimmer and more toned. Muscle is more dense than fat, so as we build muscle from fat we stay the same weight, and exercise makes you hungry so we eat more 🙂
When I was a sprinter I was a lot heavier than I was after having children, but much less flabby!
We are trying to get a couple of these treadmills at work. Only time will tell if we actually get them or not, but excited at the prospect!