U. tests benefits of treadmill desk – RU Daily Targum
Some may find it hard to head to the gym after a long day, but through a new study at the University, students may be able walk and work all at once.
In the lab of the Loree Building on Douglass campus, students at the University will have the chance to participate in a study for the Department of Exercise Science and Sports Studies to find out if walking while working at a treadmill desk can benefit productivity.
Brandon Alderman, an assistant professor for the Department of Exercise Science and Sports Studies, will research students doing low-intensity walking on a treadmill to study its effects on attention and concentration, as exercise psychology is one of his interests.
“The study will look at attention, concentration and cognitive benefits of walking of the participants,” he said.
This treadmill study will test University students ages 18 to 30 years old on two separate days for a brief period of time, Alderman said.
Many existing studies analyzing the effects of exercise on cognition only consider what happens after the participant is done with the exercise, he said.
Diana Mattina, a School of Arts and Sciences senior majoring in exercise science, will help Alderman test participants in the lab. They hope to have about 100 participants, she said.
“Conducting the study at Rutgers is advantageous to our research by allowing us to find a more representative sample of the general population,” Mattina said.
Research shows the physical benefits of using the treadmill desk, but there is very little evidence on how it could affect cognition, Alderman said. The treadmill desk study will help determine what kind of effects walking will have on the participants’ cognition.
“The purpose is to get people up and not sitting because they are sitting for large parts of their day,” Alderman said.
According to a British Journal of Sports Medicine 2007 study, it is estimated that more than half of the workforce in developed countries will be working at computers by 2010.
Society is becoming more inactive and that includes the college population and younger people, Alderman said.
“In elementary schools, children are forced into desks because teachers don’t want them moving,” he said. “If we let them move around, maybe it would promote better learning.”
This type of research could determine the positive effects the treadmill desk has on the body, as well as the mind. For a society facing an epidemic of obesity, this type of study could highlight a potential solution.
“If the treadmill desk has a positive effect on cognition, people could use them to be more productive,” Alderman said.
Even if the cognition is the same for walking, then it means people can exercise without losing productivity.
Joanne Walsh, an administrative assistant for the Department of Computer Science in the Hill Center on Busch campus, expressed doubt about the treadmill desk improving productivity.
Never having heard of the desk, she doubted whether it would be practical for a full workday.
“Physically it would be good,” she said. “I don’t think it would work for me, when I would want to stop walking to concentrate.”