Worker acceptability of the Pennington Pedal Desk™ occupational workstation alternative

Active workstation alternatives (e.g., treadmill desks and pedal desks) have the potential to elevate workplace energy expenditure by replacing occupational sedentary behavior with opportunities to generate low-intensity non-exercise physical activity, but only to the extent that workers find them acceptable and congruent with their primary working tasks and therefore can frequently use them for extended periods of time.

To assess workers' acceptability of the Pennington Pedal Desk™.

Full-time sedentary workers (N = 42; 76% female; mean+SD age 39.6±11.3 years; BMI 25.7±5.4 kg/m2) used the pedal desk for 15 minutes while they: 1) searched the internet, 2) composed an email, and 3) completed acceptability ratings using an online Likert scale anchored from 1/strongly disagree to 5/strongly agree. Garmin Vector power meter pedals and EDGE 510 GPS bike computer (Garmin ®, USA) continuously captured revolutions per minute (RPM) and power.

Participants indicated that they would use the pedal desk for 4 (median) hours per work day and 97.6% of participants were somewhat or completely confident that they could type proficiently while using the pedal desk. Participants pedaled at 54.8±11.2 RPM and 23.1±8.6 watts (mean+SD).

Participants rated the Pennington Pedal Desk™ workstation positively and indicated potential for extended daily use.