2 hours of walking at your desk

What it is

Walking slowly on a walking pad under a standing desk while you work. Two hours is a target you build up to, split across the day, not one long session.

What the research says

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is the energy you use for everything that isn’t sleep, eating or deliberate exercise. How much it adds up to varies a lot between people, mostly with job and lifestyle. (Levine, Journal of Internal Medicine, 2007)

• Breaking up sitting. A meta-analysis found that interrupting long sitting with short activity breaks modestly lowered blood glucose and insulin after meals. (Loh et al., Sports Medicine, 2020)
• Steps at work. In a study of 25 office workers, an hour on a treadmill desk went along with roughly 4,500 extra steps that day. Longer studies are less consistent about total sitting time. (Giumetti et al., Occupational Health Science, 2021)
• Can you still work? Slow walking usually doesn’t get in the way of reading. Typing held up at about 2.25 km/h, but was worse at slower and faster speeds. (Funk et al., Perceptual and Motor Skills, 2012)

How to try it

1. Start with 20–30 minutes at an easy pace, during calls or reading.
2. Add a block per day each week until you reach two hours.
3. Keep the pace easy. Around 2 km/h works for most typing; speed up for calls and reading.
4. Wear comfortable shoes and check your desk height so your wrists stay neutral.

DeskWalker can connect to Bluetooth (FTMS) walking pads and log each session to Apple Health as an Indoor Walk.