The trouble with being a writer is that it’s a sedentary occupation. You spend hours sitting on your backside and it’s really, really unhealthy.

I try to make up for it with exercise. I play golf at least once a week, I have a weights workout I do regularly, and I cycle or walk to the shops when the weather is fine and I have the time.

I also have an exercise bike, but the trouble with that is:

1/. The seat isn’t very comfortable, and

2/. I’m still sitting on my bum.

So a month or so ago I bought a treadmill. And I’m loving it!

It took us a while to get it out of the box and built. We would have been better off paying for that service because it was messy and painful, and caused much swearing on a Sunday morning. But we got there in the end and, most importantly, the finished product is getting plenty of use.

The treadmill under construction

I’m doing 5 kilometres a day on it, mostly walking but with an occasional spurt of jogging when I get bored or overexcited. I have no illusions that this is enough to make up for all that bum-sitting, but it’s better than nothing. Plus I can do other things while I’m exercising, like listen to podcasts, record (panting) voice notes to myself on my phone, check emails and social media, and read.

Hooray for treadmills!

I can also daydream. Exercise is GREAT for creativity. Not quite as good as showering but pretty handy for triggering ideas.

Although I discovered the hard way that getting lost inside your head while treadmilling can be dangerous. The first week I used it, the treadmill tossed me fair off the back after a particularly ga-ga moment while zoning out on my work-in-progress. Now I make sure to keep my hands on the bars whenever I close my eyes. My other half keeps muttering that a smart person would clip on the safety release thingy, but that would be far too sensible and I notice the he never uses it either. So there.

Some authors set up desks over their treadmills, set it to a low speed, and write and walk for long periods. I can’t see myself doing at the moment but I certainly won’t rule it out for the future. In the meantime, I’ll just keep trundling happily along.

And hopefully not get spat off the back again.

What do you do for exercise? Do you multi-task while working out? Does exercise help your creativity too?