Christina Barber-Just of Leverett has a desk job, but she’s by no means sedentary while at work at Smith College in Northampton.
On a recent Tuesday morning, Barber-Just, 41, was dressed in a black stretchy long- sleeved shirt with matching pants and black sneakers strolling along on her treadmill as she edited copy for the college’s Alumnae Quarterly magazine.
“I’m much happier when I am walking and I am actually more focused,” she said.
Since the desk treadmill is built to be a workstation, it has an attached desk and a special motor that is designed to run at low speeds for long periods of time, It’s maximum speed is 4 mph.
Barber-Just walks along at 2.5 mph.
“I feel like I am getting a little bit of a workout. It feels awesome,” she said.
Working full-time as the magazine’s associate editor with twin 10-year-old sons at home, Barber-Just says she doesn’t have time to go to a gym. Walking at her treadmill desk is her main source of exercise.
“There aren’t a lot of things to do to distract yourself when you are walking and working. You tend to really home in on whatever task is at hand,” she said.
Barber-Just bought the treadmill desk online for $1,000 a few years ago when she was doing freelance work at home. She brought it with her to Smith when she joined the Alumnae Quarterly staff two years ago.
She walks for at least two hours every day, taking breaks periodically at a corner desk in her office, typically logging at least 10,000 steps per day. Sometimes she walks one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon or spreads out the day’s walking in 15-minute increments.
“I could definitely be a more responsible human about my health, but this is my grand gesture toward a healthy lifestyle,” she said.
As public awareness grows about the dangers of leading a physically inactive life — increased risks of diseases like diabetes and even cancer, for example — more office workers are finding ways to exercise throughout the workday. Some, like Barber-Just, are turning to treadmill desks, or even desks built around stationary bicycles. Some have their desks raised so they can work standing up.
Those who are able to get up and move throughout the day, significantly increase their life expectancy, according to a study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The study found that sitting at least six hours a day was correlated with a 94 percent and a 48 percent increase in developing fatal conditions in women and men, respectively. Death from cardiovascular disease had the highest correlation.
Worst of all, hard exercize, even going to a gym for an hour a day, doesn’t offset the dangers of prolonged sitting, said Lisa Chasan-Taber, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“The bottom line is the more time you spend being sedentary, the higher your risk for a number of diseases,” she said.
This is one of the many reasons Barber-Just chose a treadmill desk. An article she read in New Yorker magazine in 2013 piqued her interest. One of her favorite writers, Susan Orlean, described having a treadmill desk in a piece titled “The Walking Alive.”
From then on, Barber-Just had to have one.
“I was like a dog with a bone,” she said.
Five months later, as a birthday present to herself, she bought the same type of machine made by LifeSpan that Orlean had gushed over, trusting that the writer had done her research. She put it in her home office.
A quick internet search will show a number of other companies offer similar products, like TreadDesk and TrekDesk, but Barber-Just liked the reviews she read about LifeSpan and the price was right.
“It’s just so great because it allows me to burn calories, to be active, when I would otherwise be completely sedentary. Who wouldn’t want that?” she asks. “I think it is one of the best investments I have ever made.”
When Smith College offered her a job a little more than two years ago, she asked if the desk could come with her.
“I said, ‘I’d love to take the job, but I need to be able to bring my treadmill desk. I can’t imagine going back to sitting all day while I work.”
The college had no problem accommodating her, setting her up with her own first-floor office with plenty of room for the treadmill.
The desk space is large enough to fit her computer and a keyboard with plenty of room for pens and paper.
Not far from the treadmill’s ergonomic wrist pad, there is a digital display showing how many calories she’s burned and how many steps she’s taken.
She stocks the nearby mini refrigerator with plenty of seltzer water to keep herself hydrated. There are three pairs of sneakers stored under her desk, black, gray and neon yellow, which she coordinates with her outfits, the season and her mood.
The desk has attracted curious spectators, but Barber-Just doesn’t know anyone else who uses one. If people ask, she always highly recommends it.
“The point is to just get you moving,” she said.
Walking throughout the day has helped her stabilize her weight. The treadmill is the perfect way to offset her love of food, she says.
“I’m over 40 now, my metabolism has changed. I can’t eat a pint of Ben and Jerry’s every night and I love to cook, so this is probably the best counterpoint I could have to my food and drink obsession.”
When she gets home from work, she enjoys preparinggourmet meals for her family, including cocktails for her and her wife, Sara Barber-Just.
“The treadmill desk has allowed me to have this indulgent, gourmet lifestyle at night,” she said. “I don’t really limit my foods, I just walk it all off.”
Lisa Spear can be reached at lspear@gazettenet.com.