The treadmill was once a derogative reference to the world workers faced every day from 9 to 5. But when a Minneapolis company actually added treadmills for their employees to use, their experiences began to redefine the term.

The company, Salo, has long had a culture that emphasized the health of its employees. In 2008, it acted upon an article from the Mayo Clinic about the benefits of workplace treadmills by inquiring into ways it could integrate them into workers' daily routines.

That started Salo's treadmill experience. Learning of Salo's use of treadmills, a University of Minnesota team decided to use the company's employees as lab hamsters. The team wanted to find out whether treadmills contributed to higher productivity.

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Dan Cook

Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.