2024 is a stressful year. Others may choose more relaxing ways to de-stress – a spa day, a delicious cocktail, or a social media detox. Not me, baby. I decided to deal with it the way I always do: train harder instead of eating mini muffins out of stress. But whenever the news cycle heightens my anxiety, it just doesn’t make sense to abandon my desk and run a 5K. That’s why, over the past three months, I’ve started logging miles on a desktop treadmill. Specifically, the $240 Mobvoi Home Walking Treadmill .
As an overly self-quantified wearable reviewer, I chose the Mobvoi walking treadmill for one reason only: It pairs with a smartwatch, so all your steps are counted correctly.
My gripe with treadmills—especially the ones you keep under your standing desk—is that you can walk 500 miles on them, but your smartwatch will record perhaps 100 steps. Your legs may be working overtime, but smartwatches rely on arm swings to count steps. I know this because every time I write and walk, my Apple Watch shows that I’ve completed a squat. This is true even when I record indoor walks. no one need Log every little step but it helps me track the amount and intensity of my exercise.
Many people solve this problem by strapping smart watches to their ankles. I refuse. Not just because I tried it and found it uncomfortable, but also because the fitness tracking algorithms and sensors are programmed and tested for your arm. If I can’t trust the accuracy of treadmill walking data, then running data becomes useless to me as a wearable device reviewer.
This is where the Go Out Treadmill comes in. (I use it with Mobvoi’s TicWatch Atlas and Samsung’s Galaxy Watch.) When you turn on the walking pad, it connects to the walking pad. Look. Your indicators are right on your wrist – even if your arms go limp while typing an email. This is pretty accurate too! There aren’t any additional sensors, but once connected to the app it allows the device to share data with your watch. I noticed that this meant my Android watch could correctly record my small movements as steps. My Oura Ring and Apple Watch don’t have it.
Problem solved! Or the same would be the case if I were a loyal Mobvoi user. But alas, even this simple walking pad can’t escape the small workspace ecosystem.
For whatever reason, Apple Watch users are out of luck as the Mobvoi Treadmill app is not available in Apple’s App Store. To see real-time statistics on your wrist, you must Have an Android smart watch. I don’t like this, it’s a little confusing considering it’s all just connecting the walking pad and watch via Bluetooth. Luckily, I spend the better part of a year testing Wear OS watches and don’t care about having two phones and wearing two smartwatches all the time. But that’s not the case for most people, and for the average iPhone user, it’s not possible. I asked Mobvoi if there would be an iOS version, but got no response.
Somehow, getting your phone to actually save this data is even more of a headache. If you go out and ask for a watch, no problem. Exercise results recorded in the Mobvoi Treadmill app will automatically pop up into the separate Mobvoi Health app on your phone. But the Mobvoi Health app is only available on Mobvoi watches. If you use any other kind of Android smartwatch, you can’t actually log treadmill data into any health apps saved on your phone. The data is on your wrist.
Things like that are why people choose an ecosystem and stick with it. During my testing, I focused on transferring all the walking mat data to my iPhone (the device where most of my health data is stored). I’m exhausted from trying every possible way to move my data from Android to Apple’s health and fitness apps, which makes me no Not thinking about using a walking mat at all. I let it gather dust in my office for a few weeks because I didn’t want to use it if I didn’t get credit for it. It takes so much hard work to earn this honor.
At this point, I had to take a good look in the mirror. The point is to use this device to relieve stress. Instead, all I did was make Walking mat. I ended up getting anxious and Fear of my imperfect, messy metrics. I worry so much about doing something the “right way” that I end up not doing it at all. Looking back, I’ll be the first to tell you that this is ridiculous. However, I’ve also been part of enough of the running and fitness community to know that this is a common trap that even the best of us fall into.
My experience improved when I threw the smartwatch in a drawer. I admit that my step count is inaccurate, and that my training algorithms on a dozen wearable platforms are slightly off. In fact, I stopped logging my walks entirely on every platform. As a result, my mental health has improved and I now walk more often. My life didn’t feel less stressful – I just had more endorphins in my system, but it was enough to make me more resilient.
Once I stopped caring about data, I was free to think about how to use walking mats meaningfully. As a lifelong straight-A student, I started trying to walk and Working at 2.5 mph makes it “worth it.” Imagine the look on my surprised Pikachu face, knowing that walking fast is quite difficult and Write emails and even read them as you float. And he was sweating profusely. Eventually, I accepted that my desk walk didn’t have to be fast and found that turtle-like speed was doable. (I wrote most of this review at 0.6 mph.)
In the morning, when I’m low on caffeine, a 20-minute walk usually gives my withering brain cells a workout while catching up on the news. When something doesn’t work in a draft, reading my sentences as I go helps a lot. I also noticed that when I was depressed, anxious, angry, or filled with fear, my body would become so rigid. Ten minutes of slow jogging on a walking mat is always enough to relax me—even if my step count isn’t impressive.
If you too experience regular existential fears and anxiety, I highly recommend a walking mat. Just maybe not this one. Very interesting. I chose the treadmill that I went out to buy precisely because of its bells and whistles. But eventually, all the extra connections, data, and “wisdom” got in the way. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is remember why you’re doing something, zero in on the focus, and eliminate the extra noise.
