Sitting is a blessing and a curse and for those of us tethered to our desks all day, the latter often outweighs the former.
Even if you spend your work day sitting in an ergonomic position in one of the best office chairs, sooner or later, the effects of sitting for long periods are going to catch up with you. Whether that be through poor circulation, weight gain or worse, you definitely don’t want to remain seated for extended periods.
Though you can always take a quick break and walk around or do some stretches, what if you want to keep working as you get the blood flowing to your legs? Well, many people (myself included) often turn to the best standing desks as a way to avoid sitting all day.
These height adjustable desks still give you the option to work while seated but at the push of a button, your desk setup rises into the air and you can keep chipping away at the task at hand, all without missing a beat.
One other good thing about standing desks is that they pair perfectly with one of the best under desk treadmills. That way, you can walk or walk briskly (sorry, no running here) while you work. What if you want to get your blood pumping while you work but don’t have a standing desk though?
An under-desk elliptical might be just what you’re looking for. I spent the past week trying one out myself and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to use — and keep using — throughout my work day.
If you’re looking for a low-impact exercise that won’t overly strain your joints and can help you through that mid-day slump or make that next meeting a bit easier, here’s what it was like for me adding an under-desk elliptical to my work-from-home setup.
Smooth and simple
Normally when I’m testing out a new desk gadget or other work-from-home accessory, it’s sent over for review by the company that made it. Not in this case, though.
Instead, my Dad got me this under-desk elliptical from Sunny Health & Fitness for my birthday, and I finally got around to unboxing it and setting it up.
While there is a smart version of this under-desk elliptical with an app to track your progress as well as a motorized one, my dad is old school, which means he got me the classic version instead. That way, I don’t have to worry about the app being discontinued or an electrical component breaking and needing to be replaced down the line.
You are able to track your progress via the digital, battery-powered screen in the center of this under-desk elliptical, though. There’s also a tension control knob underneath it to increase or lower its eight levels of magnetic resistance as you pedal away at your desk.
As someone who builds home office furniture for a living, I really liked the fact that the Sunny Health & Fitness Under-Desk Elliptical comes fully assembled and ready to go.
The only thing I had to do before I started using it was to pull out a plastic tab on the side of its screen that prevented its battery from draining during shipping. It uses a small, watch-style battery, but Sunny includes an extra one with the instruction manual.
Although the motion while you’re pedaling is the exact same as a full-size elliptical at the gym, under-desk ellipticals are built a bit differently due to their more compact nature.
To ensure smooth movement throughout the up and down stroke of their pedals, under-desk ellipticals often use rollerblade-style wheels (my favorite office chair upgrade of all time) that glide along a track.
After getting the Sunny Under-Desk Elliptical unboxed and set up, it was time to take it for a spin under my desk.
A pedal away
At 20 inches wide, 25 inches deep and 12 inches tall, I had no problem finding space for this elliptical underneath my desk. However, at 25 pounds, it isn’t the lightest under-desk elliptical out there, but for most people, this won’t be a problem at all.
For myself, on the other hand, it did begin to feel a bit more cumbersome than I expected after a while as I tried it at a few different desks around my home and brought it out to the garage to take photos.
The Sunny Under-Desk Elliptical is easy to move and adjust though. Thanks to the handle in the middle, you can pick it up with one hand, and while it isn’t necessarily heavy, it can feel a bit bulky due to its width.
Have you ever ridden a bicycle where the pedals were too low or too high in relation to its seat? That’s what using this under-desk elliptical was like at first. If I had it too close to the wall, my legs weren’t long enough to comfortably reach it. Then when I had it too close to the front edge of my desk, my legs didn’t quite have enough room to extend out all the way.
After I finally managed to find the sweet spot underneath my desk, I was ready to ride or pedal away, in this case. I started off slow with the resistance turned all the way down and pedaled my way through our Monday meeting. Much to my surprise, everyone was signing off in what felt like only a few minutes to me.
I wasn’t done though, so I did what I normally do: I hunted for some good security news to cover, started working my way through my inbox, and checked in on what everyone else was up to on Slack. I briefly used an under-desk footrest back when I reviewed the X-Chair X2, and when I wasn’t pedaling away on my new elliptical, I used it like a footrest too. However, think of it more as an adaptable footrest since your feet don’t have to remain in one place and you can have one foot resting higher than the other.
Since I review standing desks, I have a whole house full of them and I set up the Sunny Under-Desk Elliptical underneath the FlexiSpot E7. It’s a bit deeper at 30 inches than most of the other desks I review, though it does come in several sizes, but this gave me plenty of room to find the perfect positioning for the elliptical.
Throughout the week, I often found myself walking away from my main desk setup in my home office and heading out into the living room to work just to use it. As I alluded to earlier, the elliptical was perfect to keep me from fidgeting during meetings, but I also found myself using it to get through more mundane tasks like checking my email. It was particularly fun to use while doing product research and putting together my ideas for upcoming stories.
Normall,y while standing at my desk, I have a hard time writing and I tend to go back to editing stories or researching instead. With this under-desk elliptical, though, I found I could write while using it since whenever I wanted to take a short break or even just a moment’s pause, it just became a footrest.
As good on the couch as under your desk
I plan to keep incorporating this under-desk elliptical into my daily work routine when possible since it does help me shake things up a bit while getting the blood flowing to my legs. Taking it out from underneath my desk and putting it back is slightly annoying but its handle makes doing so easy. The reason I’m using it this way is because one of the most important things when it comes to office chair ergonomics is that you want to keep your feet flat on the floor when possible.
For those times when I do take this elliptical out from underneath my desk, I’ve found the perfect alternative use for it. It may be marketed as an under-desk elliptical but it works just as well when you’re seated on the couch. I tried it out while sitting on the couch watching TV but I also used it for a bit when playing Spider-Man 2 on the PS5 Pro for another story I’m working on (stay tuned for that one).
Using the elliptical on the couch worked well when I wasn’t too into the movie or TV show I was currently watching. However, when I was paying attention to a particular scene, I found that I’d stop pedaling.
With games though, it was a different story altogether. As the action got more intense in Spider-Man 2 as I swung through the streets of New York City, I actually started pedaling faster to keep up with the in-game motion. This made a lot of sense to me though as I used to play games while riding a stationary exercise bike. Heck, I went as far as mounting a portable monitor on top of my Peloton bike to do just that.
Another good thing about an under-desk elliptical like this one is that unlike with other exercise equipment, the other people in your household can use it too since there’s nothing to wipe down or clean in between sessions. Likewise, I was able to use it both while wearing just socks and with shoes on without any difficulties or extra risks.
If you’re looking for a quick and inexpensive way to get your blood flowing and break up your workday, you too might want to consider adding an under-desk elliptical to your work from home setup. Another nice thing about it is that unlike with an under-desk treadmill, nobody will know your pedaling away underneath your desk. That is unless you start bobbing your head from side to side like I found myself doing at times.
So what about you? Have you ever tried an under-desk treadmill or elliptical? Do you think it would help or hurt your workflow? Let me know in the comments below.
