Use the Walking Pads Comparison tool to find the best walking pad based on your preferences and budget. It compares walking desk / treadmill desk brands like WalkingPad, KingSmith, Xiaomi, CitySports, Urevo, GoPlus, Superfit, LifeSpan, Sperax, DeerRun, EgoFit, Yagud, Lichico, and more.
Below is information on walking desk benefits, buying tips (budget vs non-budget, warranties), treadmill maintenance and repair, and other helpful products to go with your walking desk. This page contains affiliate links.
See Recommended Walking PadsWalking at a treadmill desk increases your oxygen levels, blood flow, and endorphins throughout the day. This improves alertness, focus, and mood - and keeps them consistent. Those who use treadmill desks report not only improved energy, but focus. It's common to reduce caffeine intake, because false energy is no longer needed - you're generating natural energy.
Walking desks are especially helpful for ADHD, because they satisfy jitters & fidgets. Treadmills are recommended over bikes and steppers, as the manual engagement of the latter occupies the mind (bad); while the automatic engagement of the former (set a speed and keep up) quiets the mind (good).
Obviously you'll lose weight at a walking desk. You burn more calories compared to sitting or standing. I lost 15 pounds when I started. And depending on your speed, incline, and fitness goals, you can eliminate the gym. This save time and money. The CDC recommends 10k steps per day; my average day is 20k. At my best I've clocked 320 active zone minutes (Fitbit) in one day - 5.3 hours of "true workout".
Walking posture is better than standing posture, which is in turn better than sitting. Our ancestors weren't sitting all day, goes the saying, but nor were they standing. They were walking. I can vouch for the back-pain difference between standing and sitting, as I alternate often.
Besides weight-loss and posture, you improve overall health and wellness. You improve your cardiovascular and pulmonary systems; your sleep; and you stave off neurodegeneration. Trust me, dear reader, if you work at a desk all day - you should be walking.
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Some treadmills offer one through their website, Amazon offers Asurion. Motors don't last forever, the motor will die. When, not if, and sooner with the budget treadmills. With the warranty, there's nothing to worry about. I've gone through three for the price of one.
Budget: Budget walking pads deal less effectively with heat, especially with continuous use (1+ hours). To mitigate this, follow the "Treadmill Care" section below. Generally expect 1-2 years out of these mills; compared to the non-budgets which could last 8-10 years. Personally I take the trade-off - I don't know where I'll be in 2 years, nor how the next gen will improve the tech. And with Amazon's extended warranty, I've been refunded for every treadmill death.
Non-budget: LifeSpan, Unsit. These can run continuously for much longer (6-9hrs for LifeSpan). Their motors are more durable. When you do have problems, they come with long warranties and you'll typically have a service rep come fix it. They're much larger and heavier than budget mills, so they'll be more a permanent fixture than a wheel-away. For LifeSpan/Unsit, do still follow "Treadmill Care". The only maintenance-free mills are manual (eg Walkolution) - because they're motor-free.
Dust & pet-hair are an enemy to motors, rollers, and bearings. Blow air into the motor carriage - through any vents and openings available - to blow out dust and hair. Do this frequently - at least once a week (I do it every day or two). Use a high RPM electric duster, like WolfBox MF50 (cheaper) or WNH Air Duster (stronger).
A "cold start" is when, first use of the day, you start your treadmill and immediately step on. You may experience jerky belt motions and squeaking / screeching. If you do, you're hurting your treadmill. So before walking each day, "warm start" your treadmill by running it 1-2min at max speed, before stepping on. My theory is this expands the ribbing in the drive belt for a better grip on the pully. You only need to do this at day's first use.
Budget mills deal less effectively with heat. To deal with this, reduce the amount of continuous (in one session) walking. I recommend 30-45 minutes of walking, and a 5 minute break (turn off via remote). The occasional hour or two won't kill these machines; but running the belt for 8hrs a day will. I'm a fan of the Pomodoro Technique for focus management. You work for 25 minutes (don't check emails / texts / Slack, nothing - pure hardcore work) and then take a break for 5 minutes to catch up on everything, or just de-steam. This fits perfectly with the treadmill. Work for 25-30, turn it off and go check your texts in the bathroom or whatever for 5 min, repeat.
Every 40 hours or 3 months of use, apply lube in a zig-zag motion under the belt (between belt and pad). Then run the treadmill at 1mph for 2 minutes without walking on it. This reduces friction on the pad, which prevents overworking the motor, which extends the treadmill's life. Get one with a firm applicator; wobbly tubes are hard to control. Godora is easier, Sekoday is cheaper. More details.
If the belt starts to drift one way or another, you take an Alan wrench and tighten the side which is too tight / close (not not the side with slack). This pulls the belt away from that too-tight side towards the slack side. Think of it as if you created a slope that the belt rolls down. Do quarter turns clock-wise while the belt is running, wait 15 seconds to see if it fixes itself, and do another quarter turn if not (repeat until it's fixed). Then you just leave it - it's something I don't understand, not "undoing" the tightening after the fix, but whatever - you just leave it. This situation happens say once every week or two, is something you do with all the treadmills; necessary evil.
Also! A sloppy belt-adjustment leads to early motor, bearings, or drive-belt failure. It puts too much strain on one side, angles the rolling pin, and causes downstream degradation. Signs of this are jerky motions, squeaking or grinding, and smells. And make sure the belt is not-too-tight, not-too-loose (I'll make a video soon, Google it for now).
Check the front rolling-pin's alignment. Perfect alignment is critical. Even some millimeters off can cause uneven strain and wear on your drive belt, pully, motor shaft, motor, and bearings. There's often some notch indicating where the pin should align to. But if not, use the "Correct belt drift" section above for how-to.
Treadmills are needy. Budget mills more than premium. But don't let the internet fool you - LifeSpans die too without proper maintenance, I've seen it plenty. If you want a low-maintenance walking pad, Walkolution 2 is your guy. C'est la vie, the maintenance becomes a muscle-memory ritual, and it accounts for most the 5-star and 1-star discrepancy.
Urevo Mat adds more absorption; Sunny Mat is cheaper. Adds a layer of shock absorption for your knees. Absorbs sound. Prevents shock damage to hard floor. Over time the rubber stoppers will at worst damage the floor, at best smear rubber that's hard to remove. Adds a protection layer against high-pile carpet, so you're not pulling debris into the hardware.
FlexiSpot EN1. My budget pick. I've abused this cheapie for 3 years without a hitch, so I don't see the point in the $1,000 Herman Millers championed on /r/StandingDesks. But if you want to splurge, browse that sub. I've seen FlexiSpot gaining traction there recently; in particular the E7 series. You'll definitely want an electric desk which can sit or stand, because after walking or standing all day, you'll need a break.
Men, Women. There are shoes more tailored towards prolonged walking or standing rather than running. I research what nurses champion, since it's the closest lifestyle to a walking desk. They're quite bullish on two: Brooks Ghost Max 2, and Hoka Clifton / Bondi.
When walking on a treadmill, you'll build a lot of static electricity. If you touch anything grounded, you'll release electrostatic discharge (ESD). If this is something metal connected to your computer - a monitor, peripherals with metal components, your laptop - this can damage your electronics with time. Both the components you touched, and your computer. The solutions are:
Article. People often develop RSI (Repetitive Stress Injury, a cousin of Carpal Tunnel) when seated with a standard mouse, due to the arm motion. That type of wrist motion is bad for you. When you walk, you move your arms more than usual, which amplifies RSI risk significantly. It could take 6 months, it could take a 5 years, but many I've talked to with walking desks have experienced an RSI uptick. Ergo peripherals solve this - specifically a "wedge-style" trackball mouse and a split + tented keyboard. Read that article for recommendations (different budgets & styles), but hot-take budget-picks are (Mouse: Ploopy Adept, Keyboard: Royal Kludge RKS70)
FluidStance Plane Cloud. Sometimes you don't feel like walking. I spent a long time researching the perfect standing setup. Standing on a hard surface for prolonged periods is NOT good for you (even with good shoes); it's better to just sit. So my next move was standing-specific mats. When things really changed was in exploring wobble boards (Yes4All, Fezibo, Gymba, etc). By wobbling, you're exerting a sort of added "cushion" which lets your body alleviate tension here then there. It's less effort, and more comfort, than you'd think. Plus this improves posture, and evidently burns some 200-300 calories extra per 8hr standing day. I went through quite a few of these, but they all suffered from a lack of good angle or weight distribution. Eg, Yes4All is too "ballerina pose". Fezibo has you over-pronating, which is terrible for your ankles. Revbalance is too hard-core, there's no way you'll focus while surfing. So the end-game was Fluidstance.
You'll want the cushioned one specifically (PlaneCloud). Prolonged standing is so hard on your feet, that you need all the cushion you can get. The top is cushioned, the wobbling aspect itself provides a pseudo "cushion" (you're sort of floating around), and I recommend also wearing shoes. Cushion!
Please note: if you've walked all day, you shouldn't switch to standing; you should sit. Use a standing board for days you don't walk, otherwise sit. Walking and standing put strain on your knees, and to preserve your health you should choose one or the other; and then sit to recover.
Vivo or MountUp. I highly recommend using monitor arms instead of a monitor stand. It's vital to position the monitor such that you're looking perfectly perpendicular - a straight line from your eyes to the center of your monitor - especially while walking. Plus then you can add additional monitors to a cluster, save desk space, adjust the depth, etc.
Gloves. Since you'll be sweating a bunch, get some cheap cloth fingerless gloves to catch the sweat so it doesn't get on your keyboard or mouse. I tried wrist-bands, but it didn't catch sweat from the hands themselves.
If you're really hard-core, slap on some wrist weights. I use these, but if that's too heavy shop around. I wore them for months, without any pain in shoulders, back, or arms. This because I maintain proper posture (from walking, and eye-level monitor positioning), and shoulder→elbow, elbow→hand 90° form. Without proper form, weights can injure you - so be vigilant! Don't wear these on your ankles, you can harm your joints. If you want to accomplish the same goal, wear a weighted vest instead.
Incidentally I stopped wearing them because my family said I was getting to "veiny". I was definitely bulking up, but I'd rather be non-buff than "veiny".