This is an installment of Good Fit, a column about exercise.
Though Antonella Avogadro’s job as a software engineer normally ties her to her desk for most of the day, she still manages to get in about 10,000 steps—and sometimes even up to 20,000 steps—before clocking out. On the days she works from home, Avogadro says she starts her morning by walking for an hour or two, then after sitting through lunch, she’ll usually walk through her 3 p.m. slump for, as she puts it, “that last push of the day.”
She gets these steps in at her desk by using a walking pad. She says using the machine helps her feel less distracted and restless while working, and makes it easier to fit a workout into her busy schedule. “It just helps me feel better about my day,” she said. “I’m working, and I’m also dedicating some time for myself.”
The walking pad—a simple treadmill without handrails, small enough to fit in a home office—has exploded in popularity since the beginning of the year, with countless online users raving about how the device has transformed their work-from-home experience. The devices are typically less powerful than standard treadmills, with many topping out at walking speeds of 4 mph, and can range in price from $200 to $2,000.
Like its predecessor, the standing desk, walking pads are an answer to many people’s otherwise mostly sedentary remote-work lifestyles, with users reportedly racking up tens of thousands of steps per day just by strolling during meetings and phone calls and while writing emails. And unlike full-size treadmill desks, they tend to be cheaper and take up less space. Some can even be folded up to put away while not in use.
TikTok content creator Thalia LeBlanc, who’s been using her walking pad for the last six months, said she’s “obsessed” with her recent purchase. So much so that her Peloton bike—like so many other Peloton bikes across America—has fallen into disuse.
The walking pad is not a replacement for sweaty gym sessions or high-intensity at-home cardio, but it is a simple way to add some additional activity to your day and counteract the well-documented negative health effects associated with long periods of sitting.
The way we work today is perhaps even more sedentary than it was a few years ago. According to Pew Research Center estimates, a significant percentage of workers continue to do their jobs at home in 2023. That means no commutes, and doing away with strolling to and from the office water cooler. Compared to other desk jobs, remote work can come with its own set of specific health risks, with some studies pointing to the potential impact of improper work areas at home, including an increased risk of musculoskeletal issues and lower back pain in remote employees.
But working from home—particularly as many of us settle into it for the long haul—also allows us the opportunity to completely optimize our working hours by adding movement and activity to parts of our day where there previously was none.
“I think it’s just a good way to multitask,” said YouTuber Sarah Zimerman, who does tech and product reviews on her YouTube channel. She first acquired her walking pad back in February in order to try it out for a video, and says that she has continued to use it almost every day since.
In her review, Zimerman is candid about some of the walking pad’s downsides, including the sometimes steep price tag (more than $700 for the model she used), high electricity use that tripped the circuit breaker in her apartment several times, and the faint drone emitted by the motor, which can sometimes be distracting.
Overall, though, Zimerman says her experience “has been great,” and has improved her work-from-home experience. LeBlanc says she saw positive health impacts related to her PCOS, and she credits her walking pad with helping her lose 15 pounds in the last six months.
Although exercise alone isn’t typically enough to ensure weight loss, using a walking pad to add a few more steps during the day is another way of supplementing your NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which tends to contribute to a significantly greater percentage of our caloric burn than actual workouts.
Examples of NEAT activities include things like doing chores around the house, standing rather than sitting, gardening, and cooking dinner. With many people who work from home missing out on other typical NEAT exercises like walking to the bus stop or climbing stairs to get to a meeting, a walking pad can be a way of supplementing that lost activity.
On the other hand, the users I spoke to also admitted to there being certain vaguely dystopian undertones involved with the idea of working out while also working. Is the walking pad really an antidote to our desk-bound lifestyle, or merely a way to keep our bodies in optimal condition in order to better endure our long hours of indoor confinement?
“It almost does feel dystopian,” admits LeBlanc, who nonetheless prefers her walking pad to walks around her neighborhood. She even places the pad near her window so she can look out at trees and greenery, giving her the impression of being outside.
“I don’t feel like I would walk the same distance without feeling unsafe or feeling like I’m too far away from home,” said LeBlanc. “I would rather just do it on my walking pad, looking at the nice views, working and being productive at the same time.”
In many parts of the country, a lack of walkable neighborhoods makes it difficult to get in the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week, and a 2017 report compiled by public health experts gave the United States a “D” grade for “walkable neighborhoods,” with only 32 percent of states meeting the walkability standard.
This year, with many cities in the United States measuring triple-digit temperatures and breaking heat records, sometimes a stroll through the neighborhood can be unbearable, or even dangerous.
At the same time, the number of new devices that allow us to stay entertained while being at home has only increased, and many users are also hopping on their walking pad after work as a way to get in a few steps while watching Netflix, listening to podcasts, or scrolling on their phone. One can imagine a walking pad ouroboros: walking on a walking pad while watching TikTok videos featuring creators using their walking pads.
There are reasons to be skeptical of the apparent proliferation of the walking pad: Product trends on TikTok tend to be fueled by robust incentives for creators to review, recommend, and eventually lead viewers to make a purchase. Nearly all of the users I found posting about their experience with their walking pad—including those interviewed for this article—include affiliate links on their page that give them a small percentage of sales when someone buys a walking pad, or they receive free merchandise from brands incentivizing them to create videos featuring the products.
Personally, though I’ve been tempted to partake in the walking pad trend myself, the bulk and expense of the machine doesn’t quite fit into my lifestyle, especially since living in New York City gives me plenty of other opportunities for walking over the course of my day. The walking pad is, in my mind, no match for the kind of routine walking you get to do in a walkable city—or for a job that simply allows you time to stroll, away from your desk.
Still, it’s clear that these videos, and the interest in them, speak to a need many remote workers have to try to balance the competing priorities of work, safety, comfort, and health.
“I think it’s also just kind of a human response to [being] forced to work from home,” said Avogadro, who sees the walking pad as an example of our adaptability to new environments, for better or for worse.
