Are Desk Attachments for Your Treadmill Worth It?

This desk’s key advantage—and it’s a big one—is that it’s bilevel, providing both a large, flat surface meant for your keyboard and mouse, and a separate smaller, slightly angled platform for your laptop. It’s the only option we evaluated with two levels, which makes it the only option that meets the criteria for an ergonomically sound workstation. Even better: The height of both the flat keyboard surface and the laptop shelf are adjustable, so you can ensure both are in the optimal position for you. 

Landing on the perfect height might take some trial and error. And while the laptop shelf is a quick adjustment up or down, the keyboard surface calls for some effort. It’s adjusted with plastic risers that are screwed in place. If you need to adjust the height, you first have to unscrew the base riser, then attach or detach middle risers, then reattach the base. It wasn’t hard to do, but it took some time, and if you don’t nail the height the first time, you’ll need to repeat the process. I’m 6 feet tall, and it took me a couple of tries to get the keyboard surface in the right spot for me. (I later discovered that the company’s assembly tutorial online offers tips for how to get this right the first time, so you can shortcut this process.)

Once I had the levels where I wanted them, I found I enjoyed walking slowly on the treadmill while working. The desk attached solidly to the arms of at least one of the treadmills we used for this project. The friction pads on the underside of the desk risers created a solid grip on the treadmill’s arms, so the desk didn’t feel at all at risk of slipping. The laptop shelf did move around very slightly as I walked, but not in a way that was distracting or even especially noticeable. 

The RiseEight was one of the only desks we tested that provided two hook-and-loop straps on each side (for securing the unit to the arms of the treadmill), which seemed to add stability; most desks had only one strap on each side (the other exception was the Vivo Height Adjustable 27" Laptop Desk for Treadmill, which also provided two straps per side). One big caveat here: The straps were technically too short to fit around the arms of any of the three treadmills in this project. On the treadmill with the narrowest arm circumference (10.25 inches), the straps were very close to being long enough, but the “hook” part of the strap still did not quite reach the “loop” part. I pulled them as tight as possible, and I was still able to get several inches of hook-on-hook attachment for each strap, which worked decently well, but if I were going to use this desk every day, I would want a more permanent solution. 

A final flaw to note: Because the laptop shelf attaches to the back of the keyboard desk, which is only 11.75 inches deep, as you’re working, you’re going to be standing/walking in a spot where you’re less than arm’s length from the laptop screen. Ergonomically, that’s not ideal, Keester says. And there’s not a great way to fix it. If you scooch your keyboard closer and try to back up a bit, you’re left without any desk surface on which to rest your wrists. That’s also not ideal. My preference is to be able to rest my wrists, so I wound up working a little too close to the screen. 

Overall, though, this desk provided the best working experience of any we tried. The desk’s slim profile, especially the narrow post holding up the laptop shelf, meant that it was easy to see and reach most of the treadmill’s controls. I felt stable and comfortable. If I had my own treadmill at home, I could see myself using this desk and walk-working for a solid chunk of my day.

When I first saw photos of this desk attachment, before it arrived in the mail, I had a slim hope that it offered two functional surfaces: a lower one for a keyboard and mouse, and a higher one for the laptop itself. But in person, the lower surface of this desk, which supports criss-crossing bars that accordion up or down, isn’t big enough for a keyboard, and obviously isn’t meant to hold anything. What that leaves you with is an adjustable-height desk—one with just a single surface.

But if you have a cooperative treadmill, you can get a little creative and achieve a bilevel setup. Plenty of treadmills have a reading shelf, meant to support a book, magazine, phone, or tablet. One of the treadmills I was using in our lab has a reading shelf positioned relatively high on the treadmill itself. I was able to place my laptop not on the desk attachment, but on the treadmill’s reading shelf, while using the desk for my keyboard and mouse. 

This actually worked pretty well. Ergonomically, I was able to get my arms and wrists positioned correctly and comfortably. The top of my laptop, perched on the treadmill’s reading shelf, was just a little below my eyeline—so not perfect, but close. 

This desk’s height was very easy to adjust, with latches on the sides that remind me of some sit-stand desk converters I’ve used at our office. Hook-and-loop straps for attaching the desk to the treadmill have a D-ring buckle on one end, so it was easy to cinch the bands tightly around the treadmill’s arms. This gives the desk a reassuring stability, which is noticeable as you’re using it. Plus, the desk comes with multiple lengths of straps, including some very long ones, so it should fit a variety of treadmill arms. 

Even if your treadmill doesn’t have a well-positioned reading shelf, this desk could still be more useful than some of the others we evaluated, thanks to its sturdiness and height adjustability. You could raise it up to participate in a meeting while walking, for example, and lower it to shoot off a few emails. But I wouldn’t plan on spending hours at a time working on this model.

I had medium-high hopes for this desk, because I thought its narrow base and adjustable width might mean it could work with all three of the treadmills in our labs. Turns out it worked only on two of the three, and it came with a few problems.

First, while it’s nice that the desk adjusts both by width and height, making the adjustments was cumbersome. I have decent hand dexterity, but I found the controls hard to work. 

Second, and more important, the desk’s surface tilt can be adjusted to some extent. But users don’t have a way to lock the angle in place. What that meant for me was that as I was typing, my wrists continually nudged the desk tilt angle downward until it eventually hit its most extreme angle. Once there, both my laptop and peripheral keyboard were prone to slipping off the desk, despite the bumper attached to the desk’s surface, designed in part to prevent just such an occurrence. 

Ergonomically, I was able to adjust the desk’s height to a comfortable position for my arms, but again, using my laptop only, the screen was too low. Using peripherals and the treadmill reading shelf, the laptop screen was in a better position, but, again, I was unable to rest my wrists on the desk’s surface without nudging the tilt of the desk downward. It turned out to be quite an annoyance. 

Finally, concerning the hook-and-loop straps: A plus with this desk is that it has two straps on each side, creating a secure attachment. On the other hand, the straps are quite short, and even on the treadmill with the narrowest arms, I was only able to get about half an inch of hook-on-loop attachment with the straps. 

To this desk’s credit, it’s the only model out of those we looked at that actually addressed the maximum compatible treadmill arm circumference in the product specs. Vivo’s site notes that the straps won’t work on treadmill arms more than 9.4 inches in circumference. I was able to get that half inch of hook-on-loop attachment on our treadmill with arms that have a 10.25 inch circumference, but presumably the manufacturers intend for you to use the desk with more of a secure attachment than what I was able to achieve. 

This desk is one of the simpler models we evaluated. It’s a flat surface in two halves attached with a hinge, which enables you to fold it up for storage. That’s about the only advantage to this desk, however. The desk is so low that I couldn’t use it without peripherals. I placed my laptop on the treadmill’s reading shelf, and used the desk for my keyboard and mouse. When I tried my laptop on the actual desk, I had to pretty severely kink my neck downward to see the screen. It’s also a bit low for my arms and wrists, though Dana Keester, who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall, didn’t have this problem. 

More concerning is the construction of this product. The seam in the middle of the desk is a major weak point; when the desk is set up, even without anything on it, it visibly sags slightly in the center. I couldn’t comfortably rest my wrists or hands on the desk without it feeling wobbly or without a sense that the desk might break. 

This model does offer a couple of features that others don’t, including a shallow cup holder and a slot where you can prop a tablet or a phone. Given that most treadmills come with reading shelves and cup holders, though, the added value of these features feels marginal at best.

This model is about the simplest form of treadmill desk available. It’s a single plank that affixes (like the rest of the desks) to a treadmill’s arms with hook-and-loop straps. It feels a bit flimsy (though not as flimsy as the Rad Sportz model) but still, it takes only a small amount of pressure to bow the desk downward between the treadmill arms—not good. 

This desk attachment sits at the lowest height of all the models we evaluated. My wrists were pretty severely kinked when typing on my laptop or on my peripheral keyboard, with this desk, and I couldn’t work on it for more than a few minutes at a time. A much shorter person might have a different experience. But even 5 feet, 5 inches tall, Dana wasn’t able to achieve the ideal positioning of arms and wrists with this desk.

Overall, however, my complaints aren’t so much with any specific desk, but with the concept of placing a desk surface on a treadmill’s arms and expecting to be able to work comfortably. My takeaway from this project is that—and this probably isn’t shocking—treadmills aren’t designed to be ergonomically optimal workstations. You may be better off simply taking breaks to do 10 or 20 minutes of walking on a treadmill (or outdoors) a few times a day, rather than trying to walk while you work.