If you're worried that work is becoming a treadmill, stop reading now – because the era of the human hamster has arrived.
According to research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, vertical workstations, which combine a standing desk with a walking treadmill, could be the key to reducing the expanding waistlines of the world's sedentary office workers.
The "walk and work" desk has been designed by a team led by Professor James Levine, a British scientist working at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
Daily Telegraph describesit as "an H-shaped frame that is supported by four locking rubber wheels, so that it can be moved easily.
The frame holds a Plexiglass panel on to which two adjustable arms are bolted - one to hold the computer screen and the other for the keyboard and mouse.
Meanwhile, the BBC's Denise Winterman volunteered to act as a human hamster in a low-tech attempt to replicate the Mayo Clinic's work in her local gym -something that resulting only in near-disaster...
In that time I have managed to misspell nearly every other word, mistakenly turn the typeface into italics and come dangerously close to a serious hamstring injury after an incident involving my foot, a pedal and a momentary lapse in concentration.
