I'm writing a book - on the treadmill

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of my letter to The good life for many people was the fact that I wrote large parts of the book in motion - some chapters passively moving in the suburban railway or on the train. And a lot of it was written actively on the treadmill.

Ever since I read that the author's colleague Christine Carter slowly walking on a treadmill to write her books, the idea inspired me.

Benefit no. 1: Walking is good for the brain.

I am a trained wingwave coach. Wingwave is a method that helps to dissolve mental blockages with the help of bilateral hemisphere stimulation. The term refers to nothing more than the simple realisation that people process stressful experiences better when both hemispheres of the brain are activated (stimulated) alternately (bilaterally). I use this in coaching - with some dramatically moving results. 

We know this intuitively: after a night's sleep, the world looks completely different (both hemispheres of the brain are activated in the REM phases). Or after a walk, your head is much clearer. This has nothing to do with the beauty of nature, but actually with exercise. Scientists have discovered this: Stress is hardly reduced if you are pushed through nature in a wheelchair - in other words, if you don't move. Walking on a treadmill had a similarly strong stress-reducing effect as walking outdoors.

All in all, you can say that you can think more creatively and clearly while running and are often more focussed. In short: it's good for your thinking and your brain. That motivated me. 

Advantage no. 2: Sitting is bad, walking is good for the whole body

Walking has a number of positive side effects on the body. A few weeks ago I read the book Sitting is arse whose title summarises the content quite drastically. Sitting a lot is actually poison for the body: cardiovascular system, musculoskeletal system and brain. People who sit a lot are twice as likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease as people who do not sit.

But what do you do when your job as an author, publisher and coach seems to force you to sit a lot? For one thing, I'm currently practising reading while standing on the underground and bouncing on the trampoline. I haven't yet tried reading while walking through the countryside, as was probably customary in Spitzweg's day.

Standing alone is hardly any better. So after a test phase with an improvised standing desk and wobble board, it was clear that it would work. We need a treadmill.

My criteria

• Narrow (the floor in my office is only 2 metres wide, 1.50 metres long and foldable)
• With a narrow body, so that you can attach a holder for the laptop
• Priced ok

I found that online. It's not beautiful. That would have been criterion no. 4.

Day 0:

Boat builder Helge drafts an essay, I make my first attempts at walking and writing.

Day 1:

I weigh myself and measure my body: My stomach, waist, hips and thighs, because I'm interested in whether even slow walking has an effect on my girth and weight.

I set my pace to the lowest level and start writing. I write an entire chapter of my new book while walking. The treadmill has no memory function and switches off after 30 minutes for safety reasons (a disadvantage if you want to write for several hours). So I can only estimate: 1.2 kilometres that I wouldn't have walked otherwise, about 100 calories. Ok.

When I take a break outside on deck, I'm amazed at how well I manage. I'm often nervous and fidgety during breaks and can't sit still - probably because I've been sitting for a long time beforehand. I'm curious to see if the effect lasts.

I also answer lots of questions from my Facebook friends:

Friend 1: How many km/h? ;-)

Kers Tin Hack: Currently 1.1 kilometres per hour.... when it becomes more routine, I will increase the speed....
What I also find exciting is that I find myself more mindful when I'm writing on the treadmill than when I'm sitting at my desk. I have to concentrate a bit more and I do.

Friend 2: You can really type while you walk? That's amazing. Can you really type while walking? That's amazing.

Kers Tin Hack: In a book Christine Carter mentioned that she did that. I had been looking for ways to reduce sitting - which is hard when you are a writer and coach and had started to write standing while on a wabbly plate... and writing at slow speed walking works quite well.

Friend 2: That might be something for me to try too.

Kers Tin Hack: Two pages = 0.6 km and 49 calories...

Girlfriend 2: You don't get lost with the keys? Remarkable

Kers Tin Hack: I feel even more focussed than usual... it's really exciting,....

Friend 3: You got one!

Girlfriend 4: And the device is surprisingly small compared to the Oschis in the studio ????????

Kers Tin Hack:  I searched for 4 months until I found one that was small, could run LAAAAANGSAM and was affordable. I like that. It's not super quiet, but I just listen to quiet wingwave music on the side. Also ok.

Girlfriend 5: Is that possible? I had problems doing both at the same time!!!

Kers Tin Hack:  It's surprisingly easy. You can do a lot of things at the same time: cooking + talking, knitting + watching TV, etc. People used to go for a walk READING... You can't do two mental things at the same time (arithmetic and text writing), but you can do a physical routine + thinking/writing.

Day 2:

I increase the speed to 1.5 kilometres per hour. It's still easy to run. It's so much fun that I write one and a half chapters instead of one. And only stop because the foliage stops and other tasks call me. I listen to Wingwave music on the side to drown out the noise of the treadmill.

My inner thighs bump against each other when I run. I wonder if this will get better over time.

Day 3:

I wake up in the morning with tired legs. No sore muscles, but tired, heavy legs. Even if it was only two or three kilometres - my body isn't used to it yet.

I have physiotherapy every week because of an injury to my cervical spine. The therapist looks at me at the beginning and says: „Have you lost weight?“ And „You somehow seem more physically dynamic than usual!“ Are these the first effects of the treadmill strategy?

Another chapter of the book and about 3 kilometres in the afternoon - feels good!

Day 4:

I have to do a lot of different small things. Switching between different windows doesn't work so well on the treadmill. The advantage of this is that when I'm working on texts, I stay more focussed because the temptation to „have a quick look somewhere“ is less. I feel more focussed than usual.

Overall, I feel more energised and more eager to move. In the evening, I happily use a huge pile of brushwood as a „bio-trampoline“, which I reduce to half its volume by jumping around.

A friend who is trying out the treadmill typing machine types flawlessly within the first 100 metres at a speed of 2.5 km. Nerd!

Day 5:

I increase to 2 kilometres or more. It's 25 degrees and I get really warm. I can feel my muscles moving. Unfortunately, I can't use the treadmill for long because the designer wants to make a few more improvements: a holder for my mobile phone, a groove to prevent my laptop from slipping off.

So I sit at my desk most of the day. And I wonder how on earth I used to put up with it. My back doesn't feel good, I'm struggling with concentration problems. Wow, that feels bad.

Week 2

On most days, I run for 1 - 3 hours at 2.5 to 3.5 kilometres per hour. The faster pace is a bit strenuous as the treadmill is slightly uphill. I find 2.5 kilometres relaxing. I discover that it is easier for me to stay on topic and be less distracted. When I'm sitting at my desk writing texts, it happens quite often that I don't get any further with a text. Just sitting there until the next thought occurs to me is mind-numbingly boring. At times like this, there's a great risk that I'll free myself from the unpleasant situation of not knowing what to do next by „quickly“ going to other websites - and then often get stuck and take a very long time to find the thread again.

This hardly ever happens to me on the treadmill. If I don't know what to do next, I just keep going. I let my gaze wander outside and just keep running. I often think of the next sentence after just a few steps.

Week 3

A week almost without treadmill writing lies behind me. One day of coaching, two days of team workshops, two days of further training and a broken laptop that had to go to the doctor. This was not due to the treadmill, but to a stupid virus it had caught. After just one week without daily running and writing, I can feel the effects - on the scales (the lost kilo has returned), in my digestion and in my general physical condition: I sleep worse, feel tired and dull. I wouldn't have thought that it would have such a drastic effect.

Week 4

You can meet Berlin's creatives in the relevant trendy bars or at Modulor, a shop for architectural and art supplies, where you can find everything your creative heart desires, from paints to papers, stencils and frames. There I run into the photographer Debora Ruppert on the way. She greets me with the words: I've just written to you. You have inspired me.

She then tells me that she has been toying with the idea of buying a height-adjustable desk for a long time and - inspired by me - has now combined it with a treadmill. And is happy with it.

We share our experiences. They are very similar. In the past, if we got into a mental block while sitting at a desk, we either walked away from the desk or jumped to a website. Now we just walk a few steps further and - poof - the block is gone and new thoughts come.

Later, I find her text on my mobile phone (I'm not a big fan of it, I only look at it every few hours):

 

When the book was finished, I started to shift a lot of my „normal“ writing time to the treadmill - on days when I have to sit at my „normal“ computer because I have to do bookkeeping, for example, I'm often exhausted in the evening. On days when I walk a few kilometres, currently at 2.4 kilometres per hour, writing, I still have energy at the end of the day. And I love it.