These Under-Desk Treadmills and Walking Pads Can Turn Your Work Day into a Workout

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Even if you manage to squeeze a run into your work day, if you have a desk job, you likely spend the vast majority of your day sitting down, and even standing at a standing desk can start to get old as your feet grow stiff. For some relief from the doldrums of a day spent in front of a screen, you may find some benefit in a walking pad—a walking-speed treadmill that fits neatly under your work station. (WalkingPad is also a brand that makes under-desk treadmills.)

These neat under-desk treadmills can help to rebalance all your stagnant sitting and standing, helping you fit more movement into your work days. While you don’t need to walk all day every day to perform at your best on the road and trail, a walking pad can keep you active as you send emails or attend meetings, boosting your metabolism and cardiovascular fitness with every step.

And the best part? Our top picks are low-profile enough that you can store them just about anywhere—no need to fret about cluttering up your office. Read on for our recommendations, as well as advice on what to consider before you buy your first walking pad.

The Best Walking Pads

• Best Overall: GoYouth 2-in-1 Walking Pad and Treadmill

• Easiest Storage: WalkingPad R2 Folding Treadmill for Running and Walking

• Best with Side Rails: Goplus 2-in-1 Folding Walking Pad

• Best Phone Mount: Urevo 2-in-1 Walking Pad and Treadmill

• Best Built-In Desk: Urevo 3-in-1 Foldable Walking Pad with Removable Desk

• Most Compact: Egofit Walker Pro Under-Desk Treadmill

Why You Can Trust Us

We’ve been testing all kinds of gear and tech at Runner’s World for the past 58 years, longer than anyone in the industry today. We put thousands of miles a year on running shoes from every brand we can get our hands on, we churn out workout after workout on exercise equipment at every price point, and we slog through hours of cruddy weather to test every kind of clothing. We’re committed to picking the best gear because, frankly, we want to run with it too.

To keep our research as objective as possible, we pour days, weeks, and sometimes even months of research into high-investment items like treadmills and shoes. For this roundup and others, we’ve tested bestselling products from brands as big as Brooks and as small as startups to most properly assess each option without the influence of labels. This was an especially important consideration for our walking pad research because of the Kleenex-like ubiquity of brands like WalkingPad.

How We Tested

We tested several of our top picks for the best walking pad in our own office—thankfully, someone else was testing some standing desks for another story at the same time, so we could even work while we walked. I even wrote some of this while I walked. To get a wider range of opinions on each model’s quality, we had multiple colleagues try our testing samples out at their own desks and compared their experiences with ours. We asked them to focus on controllability, stability, comfort, and noise, as we did when we tried them out ourselves.

To find the best options among the many walking pads we didn’t test, we used our combined decades of experience using treadmills at the gym and at home, our deep familiarity with the most trusted treadmill brands, and our understanding of what you should look for—and avoid—when making a purchase. We paid most attention to size, speed settings, and storability, but we also took into account finer details like speed adjustment methods, noise cancelling measures, and safety features like side rails.

2-in-1 Walking Pad and Treadmill

When we first unpackaged this treadmill at our headquarters, we were relieved to see that it was already assembled—we simply needed to stick a battery in the remote and plug the machine into an outlet to get started. We tested this one right after spending half an hour deciphering another model’s poorly written instructions, so it gets contextual bonus points for that.

This GoYouth model weighs in at only 64 pounds, and the wheels underneath make it a breeze to move around. Despite being lightweight, it feels sturdy underfoot, and it can comfortably reach speeds up to 6 miles per hour, which makes it one of the faster models on our list.

If you want to jam out to some music, you can also connect your phone to the treadmill’s speakers via Bluetooth. It doesn’t provide an audiophile’s dream sound quality, but it’s still nice to see that included in a way that doesn’t feel like it compromised any other facet of the build quality.

R2 Folding Treadmill for Running and Walking

This WalkingPad model may look like a standard under-desk treadmill, but it has one feature that makes it an especially prudent option for cramped office spaces: It can fold in half.

Whether you’re dealing with a small space or simply don’t want to move your treadmill every time you want to use it, this allows you to easily fold the whole thing up against the wall and out of the way. It also has an automatic speed mode that adjusts as you walk, tracking whether you’re outpacing the belt (or vice versa) by measuring how your fore-aft position changes on the deck.

2-in-1 Folding Walking Pad

To fit under your desk more easily, most walking pads don’t come with side rails—ideally, you’ll use your desk as a handhold or wait until it stops if you need to get on or off your treadmill. That said, not everyone is using these under a desk, and having something to hold onto can make operating one feel a lot less precarious. Enter this model from Goplus, which has optional side rails that can fold away and sit flush with the rest of the deck when you don’t need them.

The process of assembling Goplus’s 2-in-1 transformed into a brainstorming session between multiple editors as we tried to decipher the overly condensed instructions included in the box, but once it was together, we were less doubtful about this thing’s sturdiness. The deck itself feels stable at most speeds, though it does start to get shaky as you hit running speeds. (I don’t recommend going too fast on walking pads anyway—your feet will likely slip off the back if you’re an average height or taller).

2-in-1 Walking Pad and Treadmill

If you want the extra speed of a 2-in-1 treadmill but don’t need the fancy dashboard that typically comes on one, this Urevo treadmill gives you little more than a nook for your phone.

When this treadmill’s bar is up, you can get the speed up to a peppy 7.6 mph (roughly a 7:53 mile), which is certainly fast enough to classify as a brisk run. When not in use, the folding bar collapses behind the back of the treadmill, and it barely adds any bulk to its silhouette on the floor.

3-in-1 Foldable Walking Pad with Removable Desk

Depending on how your work area is set up, an adequately long walking pad may not fit no matter how hard you try. But what about your workout area? Instead of trying in vain to marry a separate desk and treadmill, you can put this treadmill with a removable desktop wherever you like.

Much like the other multi-purpose treadmills on this list, you can change the max speed by raising the sidebar, and this model can get you up to a spicy 8.6 miles per hour, or just south of a 7-minute mile. This might not be the ideal treadmill for regular speedwork because of its walking pad-sized platform, but having the option to get up to that pace is always nice.

Walker Pro Under-Desk Walking Pad

If you don’t want your exercise equipment to take up too much space in your home, period, this Egofit treadmill could be the perfect addition to your WFH setup. At just 38 inches long and under 22 inches wide, it’s among the most compact under-desk treadmills on the market, and its 55-pound weight makes it easy enough for one person to move alone.

Fair warning: You may find yourself slipping off the back of this treadmill if you have a long walking stride, but you’ll likely take more careful steps as you type on your computer anyway. Just make sure to watch your feet as you’re getting used to it.

What to Consider

Stationary Versus Folding

As compact as walking pads are, there’s some variation in how well they pack down. Some fold in half so you can tuck them in a closet, while others are designed to stay stationary when you aren’t using them.

Folding treadmills often have poorer shock and noise absorption compared to stationary options—making a treadmill sleek enough to fold into a smaller package usually means it’ll be much thinner and have more small, noisy parts.

Stationary treadmills often have much sturdier builds, with room to let your feet compress the track surface. This leads to a comfier ride as well as a quieter one, but it does also mean that you’ll have a much more awkward item to pack away if you don’t want it at your desk all the time.

Track Length and Speed

If you’re looking to save floorspace in your office, you may be tempted to look for treadmills with a small track. In most cases, you’ll be using your treadmill only for walking, so your stride won’t be very long—all is good.

On the other hand, if you take big steps or want to ramp up to a faster pace and start jogging, you’ll appreciate having a longer track so your feet don’t slip off the back end. In these cases, we recommend looking for a track that’s longer than 45 inches.

Regarding speed, if you want to jog or run regularly on a treadmill, we recommend looking for a more purpose-built running treadmill. Not only will these models give you a more substantial track and higher speeds, but they’ll feel more stable and will have motors strong enough to maintain an accurate speed regardless of how much weight stands on top of them.

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