-By Dan dos Santos

This is probably the most mundane piece of studio equipment I will share here, yet it’s probably one of the most important.

One of the major problems with working from home (in a small studio), is that you don’t get a whole lot of exercise unless you specifically go out of your way to do so. I used to drive to my studio, walk up four flights of stairs, roam around a spacious studio, walk to the cafe to get lunch, etc. All of that little walking added up and kept me fairly fit.

But for the past 6 years, I’ve worked from home, and I have undoubtedly felt the ill-effects of it. Now my exercise consists solely of swiveling my chair from my easel to my computer.

I know I’m should get out, go for a walk, and take a break every 30 minutes to stretch… but who really does that? The sad truth is, when you freelance 70 hours a week and have kids, stuff like ‘going for walks’ just doesn’t happen like it should.

After years of sitting at the easel, I started to develop really bad knee and ankle problems. My tendons started to atrophy, and then when I did go out for a jog or something, I would end up injuring myself. Initially, I tried standing while I work to alleviate this, but my floor is concrete and that wreaks havoc on my body in a whole different way.

The solution that finally helped me is this silly contraption.

I keep this under my computer desk, and whenever I’m doing something that doesn’t require a delicate touch (like writing this blog post, for instance), I just pedal away. It’s great! It’s actually pretty fun, and I find myself doing it quite regularly.

If you have a really low desk, you’ll probably bang your knees beneath it. So I just slide back a bit, and pull my keyboard out.

I know it’s essentially the human version of a hamster wheel, but boy does it help!

The device is only about $30 on Amazon, and is money well spent in my opinion.