LifeSpan Fitness Blog

Tips on living healthy and fit

The TR1200-DT from the “Ground Up”


Treadmills are designed with a drive motor that is connected to the front roller via a belt.The pulley on the drive motor is much smaller than the pulley on the front roller to create a mechanical advantage. In other words this allows the motor to spin multiple times around for every time the front roller spins. This works like the gears of a car. The higher the ratio between the front roller and the motor, the more power the motor can transfer to the treadmill belt and the easier it is for the motor to pull you as a user while you’re walking on the belt.

One of the challenges in designing a quality treadmill is having strong torque at low speeds without then causing the motor to run too fast at high speeds. Most treadmills typically have maximum speeds in the 10 and 12 MPH range. If the gear ratio is too high, this will cause the motor to spin at an rpm that will wear out the motor quickly and this is where the discussion on treadmill quality is often centered. Better quality and larger motors will typically be able to have a high torque at low speeds and then more easily run within its recommended RPM at the maximum speed.

So when we say the TR1200-DT is designed from the ground up to be a treadmill desk, mechanically it means that we focused on optimizing the torque of the motor at low speeds by increasing the pulley ratio between the motor and the front pulley. In return, we reduced the maximum walking speed to 4 MPH.
The result is a treadmill that can easily operate for hours at a time at low speeds without over heating or creating excessive stress on the motor and electronics.

Using Your LifeSpan TR 1200-DT Treadmill Desk

 

 

 

When using your treadmill desk there are several factors one should consider to promote a healthy, safe walking and working environment. Comfort is the key and the tips below will help maintain proper posture while walking and working.

 

  • Wearing comfortable shoes that provide proper support for walking longer durations is a great place to start. Try to avoid open-toe and other styles of shoes that will provide discomfort and fatigue over time.
  • Establishing the ideal desk height with proper ergonomics is critical for comfort, safety and a proper walking posture. Adjust the desk height so that your elbow is level with the keyboard, laptop, phone or mouse. Selecting the proper height adjustment will properly position the wrist during typing, prevent soreness in the elbows and promote the body being in an active and upright walking position. For those looking to mount a display to the treadmill desk, look to position the display at eye level and based on preference 18” – 24” away from your face.
  • When using a phone, it is strongly recommended that a “hands free” solution is implemented. This will keep both hands free to work and provide additional security and safety by freeing up hands to make the necessary console adjustments. The treadmill desk offers ample working surface area, so keep items that are used often within close proximity.

The Story – Why did we design the TR1200-DT?

As a result of our ongoing involvement with the medical fitness community and our partnership with the American College of Sports Medicine we watched the results published by Dr. Levine from the Mayo Clinic with a lot of interest.  In 2005, Dr. Levine an obesity researcher at the Mayo Clinic and several of his colleagues, built treadmill desks to use at work.  They found that walking at a 1.0 MPH pace burned approximately 100 calories per hour without breaking a sweat.

Several years later, online reviewers of LifeSpan treadmills started building treadmill desks and writing reviews about how to construct them.  We decided it was time to do further research. The internet was the first place we looked for more information.  There was an abundance of reviews, blog content, and video that was critical for us to refine the requirements that consumers were looking for in a treadmill desk.  Things like sore elbows from resting on a hard surface all day, convenience of using the console controls, wiring and cable management all came up in reviewer comments.

Then as we tested products on the market we were surprised by the lack of stability of the desktop platforms and the range of adjustment that was needed to support a full range of users – both short and tall.

Finally we set our engineers to design a treadmill desk to address the improvements that had been identified and to do it at an affordable price.

The TR1200-DT is the result.  Based on the TR1200i treadmill platform, the LifeSpan TR1200-DT has a completely independent desktop to avoid any vibration from walking on the treadmill impacting the desk top surface.  The desktop includes sturdy height adjustment with a simple operating console built into the front of the desk without taking away any of the valuable work space.

We think it’s a great product and would love to thank our customers for influencing the design.

 

Live Longer – Be More Active and Less Sedentary

Did you know that people with higher levels of sedentary behavior have higher mortality rates than more active individuals, even when they participate in the recommended minimal levels of moderate physical activity?  Researchers speculated that a sedentary lifestyle could have negative effects, even when people aren’t entirely sedentary.  Findings were presented at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) annual meeting in May.  According to Charles E. Matthews, PhD, physical activity epidemiologist and lead author, “Our results indicate that while exercise did reduce risk of early death, even quite high levels of exercise did not overcome the influence of high levels of television viewing on mortality risk… The results add to the growing evidence that the adverse effects of sedentary behavior are independent of the benefits gained from moderate to vigorous activity.”  Read the full article.

Prolonged Sitting Leads to Heart Disease

You may already know that if you exercise regularly you can reduce your chance of getting diseases like high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, low metabolism, high levels of cholesterol, diabetes and some types of cancer.  Research shows that prolonged sitting leads to greater risk of heart disease, and suggests that 30 minutes of exercise a day may not be enough to keep diseases at a healthy distance.  A study on sedentary behaviors effect in men at the University of South Carolina showed that men who spent more than 23 hours a week sitting, have 64 percent more risk to die from heart disease than the men who spent less than 11 hours a week sitting.  All men exercised routinely.

It’s time to start integrating more movement into your daily life, simply by taking short breaks and taking a walk, or walking slowly while you work using a treadmill desk.