Under-desk pedal machines said effective

GREENVILLE, N.C., Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Portable pedal exercise machines may help mitigate negative health effects of a sedentary work routine, U.S. researchers suggest.

Study author Lucas Carr of East Carolina University says the study involves 18 full-time employees who were given an under-desk pedal exercise machine for four weeks.

Most of the volunteers were female, overweight, who had sedentary jobs involving at least 75 percent of the working day sitting at a desk or workstation. Computers monitored the study subjects' pedal speed, distance and calories burned.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, says on average, the study subjects used the pedal machines on 12 out of a possible 20 working days, for an average of 23 minutes each of the days for 1 to 73 minutes.

The study found the distance covered per day using the specially designed under-desk pedal machines ranged from one-third of a mile to almost 13.5 miles -- with nine more than 500 calories burned in the process.

The volunteers said in questionnaires the machines were easy to use and did not affect their productivity or the quality of their work, the study says.