Best Desk Exercise Equipment

Even the most intense exercise schedules can struggle to survive a long day in the office. So why don't you give your active self a leg up over your sedentary alter ego?

You certainly don't have to quit your job in order to stay healthy. If you add up the hours in the day that you spend sleeping, eating, driving, sitting, and watching television at night, that’s a lot of sedentary time.

A great innovation today is desk exercise equipment. Also referred to as "deskercise," using this equipment will help you stay in shape and keep your body healthy despite the fact that you are confined to your desk all day long. If you sit at a desk for the majority of the day, your fitness may be suffering. Why spend all of those hours in the gym if you are just going to sit all day and undo all of that hard work? Grab yourself an office chair and get ready to learn how to effectively deskercise.

BUILD the Deskercise Habit: 30 Office Exercises to Stay Healthy at Work
After looking through all of the desk exercise equipment options on the market, I have narrowed it down to the most efficient workout tools that you can fit into a coffee break or conference call. After reading about these products, you will be able to pick and choose what might work best for you.

Having an office job is bomb on days when you're tired and just want to chill, but sedentary life for 40+ hours a week can put serious strain on your body. Long periods of sitting reduces blood flow to your legs, increasing the risk of atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in the arteries) as well as diabetes, obesity, and depression.

One study even found a direct relationship between time spent sitting and risk of early mortality of any cause. Um, that's not terrifying at all. But what are you supposed to do when your job requires being chained to a desk?

Many experts say to set hourly reminder to get up and walk around the office — whether that's to take a phone call (instead of sitting down to take it), get a drink, or just walking aimlessly. Five minute spurts of movement can lift your mood, restore dwindling energy levels without losing focus, and are apparently more beneficial than taking a single long walk. That's all great, but it's not always possible — what about the hectic days when you can't afford to take a break every hour?

Under desk elliptical

Some days, you're literally just too busy to leave your desk. There's got to be a way to keep your legs busy without constantly getting up, right? This under desk elliptical is an Amazon's Choice product and has your restless legs covered. Once you get past the immediate shock of how extra this machine is, it's actually pretty cool — with eight levels of resistance, Bluetooth and Fitbit capabilities, and a connected app to track your progress and set exercise goals.

Under desk exercise bike

More of a biking fan than an elliptical user? There's an under desk machine for that, too. The DeskCycle is another highly rated Amazon's Choice product that lets you pedal in place. Patented magnetic resistance in the pedals is said to operate smoothly and quietly to allow you to focus on your work and not annoy coworkers. The machine's display shows time, distance, and calories burned, along with eight calibrated resistance settings, depending on how much of a challenge you want.
More than 80% of customers were obsessed enough to rate it five stars, and some have even documented their weight loss solely from their at-work pedaling

Back App 2.0 chair:

Sitting on this posture-improving stool subtly exercises your back and ab muscles by requiring you to balance. By adjusting  the base you can also decrease the stability further to enable specific ab and core exercises. Choose from a range of fabrics.

Fitness Mad Stability Cushion:

Pop one of these cushions on your chair to destabilise your seat, working your abs and core. It can also be used separately for core strength exercises by kneeling or standing on it.

Reebok ankle weights:

Discreetly work out by strapping on some of these and doing a few under-desk leg lifts. They’re easy to adjust and available in 0.5kg, 1kg and 1.kg.

A lot of people nowadays don’t have the time to go to the gym or get any kind of workout. This is because they lead very busy lives and pursue their careers every day. Although it’s good to be ambitious and look to achieve as much as possible in your career, you still need to take care of your health.
So what do you do? You can’t neglect your work to remain healthy, and going the other way and never exercising doesn’t seem like the best option either. Luckily, there are ways that you can add daily exercises to your schedule and incorporate them into your busy lifestyle.

Some of the latest innovations that allow you to do this include under desk training equipment or desk exercise equipment. This training equipment is designed to help you train while at your desk, doing work. No longer will spending long hours at your work desk stop you from training, and you won’t have any excuses for not exercising.

Under desk exercise equipment
An adjustable height desk
In order to make sure that you can do all of the exercise you want at your desk, you should really first look at the desk you’re using. Your desk might be holding you back from using amazing exercise equipment because of its small size and lack of space. Additionally, some exercises are done standing, while some are done sitting down.

But don’t worry! If you think you would like the freedom and flexibilty of sitting and standing at work, and the ability to use many different types of exercise equipment under your desk, take a look at our Guide to Standing Desks.

A standup desk can help you with all of these issues. Whenever you feel you need to stand up and stretch your back a bit, you can simply make it higher. On the other hand, if you need more leg space so that you can work under the desk, you can also adjust the height to find what works best for you.

Under desk treadmill
There are several versions of treadmills for the office. You can find big treadmill desks, where you will get a treadmill similar to the ones that you can find in your gym combined with a desk-like platform. On the other hand, there are smaller versions that only come with the running strip, which you can then carefully plant under your own desk. Our personal preference is for these simple running strip-style treadmills, as it allows you to use a standing desk normally without the treadmill. Having a fixed treadmill desk is more limiting as it only has the one function, and in the end, adjustability and flexibility are key.

Walking at a steady pace is one of the best activities for the whole body. With under desk treadmills, you will not have to find time before or after work for running. Instead, combine your work and exercise, set yourself a specific time or distance, and slowly but surely burn those extra calories and strengthen and tone your muscles at work.

Under desk elliptical
If you’ve ever been to a gym, you’ll know about ellipticals. Ellipticals are an amazing way to get a similar workout to a walk or run while reducing the amount of stress and weight placed on your joints. The feeling of an under desk elliptical will be somewhere between a walk and cycle, forcing you to engage your thighs, calves, butt, and core muscles. It’s important to look very carefully at the elliptical you want to buy, as not all of them can fit under every desk, especially if you are taller.

Ideally, look for a product that is compact like the Cubii Pro in the picture above. The Cubii Pro Elliptical will slide under your desk and you will be able to pedal without bumping your knees on your desk.

Also, make sure that they are built out of durable materials and that they’ve been tested. Some versions come with resistance bands with handles that are attached to the base, allowing users to train their upper body as well.