You’re probably well aware that sitting down for eight hours a day is hazardous to your health, but if you’re like most of us, there’s one big roadblock keeping you from changing up your routine — the fact that you don’t work in one of those new-age, free-spirited startup offices where you can easily trade in your cubicle for a standing desk with a treadmill underneath it.
But not to worry — even if you can’t go buck wild and put a stationary bike where your office chair used to be, there’s still a way to burn some extra calories while you work. Say hello to the Glyder.
Freshly launched on Kickstarter earlier today, the Glyder is essentially a slimmer, quieter, and more thoughtfully-designed version of those goofy under-desk pedal machines you’ve probably seen before. Instead of pedaling, which causes your knees to move up and down, the Glyder provides you with a low-impact resistance exercise that happens horizontally — thereby eliminating any knee-bashing that might happen on the underside of your desk. With this gizmo, your feet move back and forth rather than up and down.
It also doesn’t make any noise. Most under-desk exercise machines use an electric motor or some kind of friction-based system to provide resistance, which inevitably means you’ll generate some mildly-annoying noise while you use them. Not so with the Glyder. To remedy this problem, this thing is built with an electromagnetic resistance system that allows for smooth, fluid, and extremely quiet operation. This way, you won’t have to worry about getting on anybody’s nerves while you glide.
Related: The Stand Desk: Finally, an affordable standing desk for your office
As an added bonus, it even connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth, so you can check your distance, see how many calories you’ve burned, and even adjust the resistance settings without bending over and splitting a hole in your slacks. They really did think of everything!
To help jumpstart production, creator Ayal Ebert and his team are hoping to raise $75K over the next 30 days. They’ve still got a long road ahead of them, but if you back the project now you can lock down a Glyder for just 99 bucks, and in doing so, help make this idea become a reality. If all goes well, Ebert his team hope to ship the first units to backers as early as January.
