beauty

Forget standing desks. You need a human hamster wheel.

Image via WikiMedia

We all know that sitting down is slowly killing us.

It’s been well-established that by spending 8+ hours at our desks every day, we’re increasing our risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer… basically, we’re slotting ourselves right into that early grave.

As a result, we’ve all been searching for ways to be more active in the office. To swap out our regular sitting desks for something more… dynamic.

We’ve seen standing desks and treadmill desks… but a new invention has just brought everything to an entirely new level.

They are HAMSTER WHEEL DESKS and they are awesome.

This is the hamster wheel desk.

Check out the video below to see how they work:

The concept was invented by artist Robb Godshaw and developer Will Doenlen, both of whom are based in San Francisco.

Here are three reasons why we love it...

1) You can set your own pace in the hamster wheel - so if you suddenly see something on your computer that really grabs your attention and your walking automatically slows down... so does the wheel.

This is not the case on a treadmill - if you get distracted and don't keep up with that belt, you're coming off. And that will bruise both your butt and your ego.

2) It actually looks kind of cool. Cooler than a treadmill. The wheel was specifically designed to be aesthetically pleasing, with Godshaw telling the Huffington Post that one of the issues with treadmills is that "they're not interesting as furniture."

3) Godshaw and Doenlen made the design instructions PUBLIC, so you can go and build your own. Also, look at the instructions:

This project requires 4 sheets of ¾" Plywood, 4 skate wheels, 2 pipes, 240 wood screws, a pint of glue, and a good attitude.

Plywood and skateboard wheels? EASY. Quick trip to Bunnings, anyone?

Apparently the project only took about 24 hours to put together. Check out the building of the hamster wheel below:

Have a flick through our gallery of the evolution of the standing/treadmill/hamster desks:

Would you ever use a hamster wheel desk?