TREADMILL DESKS: Better For Your Body Than For Your Mind? “The results, when the researchers compared the treadmill walkers with the people sitting at their desks, substantially favored sitting. The people who had walked during the testing performed worse on almost all aspects of thinking, including the ability to concentrate and remember, compared with those who had been seated. And they were much worse at typing, being substantially slower and more error prone than the sitting group. . . . In the current study, he said, it appears that using a treadmill desk sopped up some of the volunteers’ available cognitive resources. By devoting a portion of their thinking to keeping themselves balanced on the treadmill, they became marginally less able to reason and remember. This was a very limited, one-time test of people’s performance while using a treadmill desk or staying seated. It is extremely likely, Dr. Larson said, that if people repeatedly use a treadmill desk, they become accustomed to its effects and get better at walking, typing and thinking simultaneously.”