Who Are the Most Famous Treadmill Desk Users?

Celebrities, like other successful people, often have a hard time fighting off the ravages of sitting disease as they get older and more and more of them are turning to the treadmill desk as the solution. Being a television personality may not seem to be a sedentary job but behind the scenes there are often meetings, meetings, sit-down meals, meetings, long plane flights, meetings, commutes, meetings and alas, a few more meetings.

Their schedules are so packed that it is often difficult to get time to work out at a gym, but even they could they know that intense aerobic exercise won’t necessarily overcome the negative health effects of all that sitting time.

Late show host Jimmy Kimmel installed a treadmill desk in his office in 2012. “I read somewhere that sitting all day can cut 15 or 20 years off your life,” he explains. “It’s worse than smoking. We weren’t meant to sit this much,” said Kimmel in a recent TV Guide interview.

NBC’s most-famous weatherman Al Roker details his successful diet and exercise regimen in his new book “Never Goin’ Back.” As he discussed in a recent Dateline segment, losing 130 lbs. and keeping it off entails:

• Every morning at 4:30 a.m., he bikes two miles to the office.
• At the office, he uses a treadmill desk.
• A diet of whole, unprocessed foods that are high in protein and low in carbs.
• For breakfast and lunch, he drinks protein shakes with almond milk and berries.
• His workout routine, called “The Slow Method,” requires he exercise for 30 minutes three times a week. The strength training plan creates more lean body mass which in turn burns more calories.

Drop Dead Healthy author A.J. Jacobs wrote his last book on a treadmill desk

Author A.J. Jacobs brought the desks greater notoriety when he featured them in his book Drop Dead Healthy. The Esquire editor tried out hundreds of health-conscious life adjustments in researching his book, and the treadmill desk was one of the few he stuck with.

“I spent 14 hours a day sitting,” he told USA Today, ”Now, I find if I walk more, I have more energy.” He figures he walked 1,200 miles while putting his book together.

award-winning romance novelist Jeffe Kennedy is a devoted treadmill desk enthusiast

Award-winning romance novelist Jeffe Kennedy has an entire page on her website dedicated to her treadmill desking experience. Excited about her TreadDesk and GeekDesk combo, Kennedy says “How do I like it? I do!”

We recently found out that American novelist, attorney, politician and activist John Grisham is working on his future blockbusters while walking on an iMovR Lander treadmill desk.

There are numerous other television celebrities and famous authors who use treadmill desks but none has been more instrumental in spreading the gospel than author and The New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean. In her words:

“I am writing this while walking on a treadmill. And now you know the biggest problem with working at a treadmill desk: the compulsion to announce constantly that you are working at a treadmill desk. It’s a lot like the early days of cell-phone calls, when the simple fact that you were doing what you were doing seemed so amazing that most conversations consisted largely of exclamations about the amazingess of the call.”

The best interview we found with Susan Orlean about her treadmill desking experience was with National Public Radio, well worth the 16-minute listen.

And hey, even former Spice Girls get in on the action. Victoria Beckham recently won the internet for a day after taking her turn on a treadmill desk. Note the 5-inch stiletto heels. We can’t recommend them to standard deskers, but we also can’t deny that we’re impressed.

List of Celebrity Treadmill Desk Users

Jimmy Kimmel, Late Show Host
Mark Cuban, billionaire entrepreneur

Victoria Beckham, Fashion Designer & Style Icon
Spencer Rascoff, CEO Zillow
Joanna Coles, Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Al Roker, NBC Weatherman

John Grisham, Author
Susan Orlean, New Yorker Staff Writer
Veronica Roth, Author
Felicia Day, Actress & Sci Fi Icon
Jack Black, Actor & Musician
Ari Emanuel, Co-CEO of WME Entertainment
Jeffe Kennedy, Author
A.J. Jacobs, Author
Steve Harvey, Television Personality
Neal Stephenson, Author
Tory Jacobs, Good Morning America Correspondent

Do you know of any other famous treadmill desk users? Check our collection of famous treadmill deskers on Pinterest and if you don’t see them there already let us know!