A US firm is tackling the threat of morbid obesity that comes from slouching in front of a computer all day or being American by giving its lawyers treadmill desks. Ohio firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP fee-earners can now work-out while they work, lose pounds while they earn dollars, and die of a heart attack while they draft a typo-filled facilities agreement on a 10% incline.

Not quite a hamster wheel

Partner Mary Rust, pictured, told Cincinnati.com that she uses her treadmill desk for between one and four hours a day to run or walk while she works. Rust, seemingly delighted that she spends such a large proportion of her life in her office that she has to sprint in it to stop her limbs wasting, said, “There’s very little time in the day that I can’t spend on here.”

Treadmill desks are one part of Taft's "corporate wellness programme." The firm has also cancelled doughnut Fridays and replaced them with "healthful snack Fridays". A handful of seeds may be less deliciousful than a multiple doughgasm, but over half of Ohioan adults are predicted to be obese by 2018, so it's either birdfood today or a heavy-duty commode lift sling tomorrow.

And you're also going to need a blow moulded tub transfer bench

Beth Silvers, Taft’s chief personnel officer, reckons employees who aren't sullen whales waiting for their next feed make better workers. “I think it just makes sense on every level,” she said as a sweating blob tried to heave itself out of a chair next to her before slumping back. “Healthy, happy people produce higher quality work, higher quality client service.”

So far only two partners have personal treadmill desks. Everyone else shares a pair of the contraptions in a communal area, which sounds suspiciously like the firm has just made a gym with work in it but, again, these guys are going to get so fat otherwise.

The treadmill desk is available for around £1500. If you already sit at your computer on a big ball, you're probably ready, though running wuhile typifgng hasd varibale resilts and dictations are returned looking like the transcript of someone who enjoys leases way too much.