FlexiSpot Sit2Go fitness chair review: Workout while you work

Like most desk-bound folks, I have my concerns about living such a sedentary lifestyle. I got a standing desk a while back and have been pleased with the difference it has made. However, I still spend a decent amount of my time sitting and couldn’t help thinking about replacing my office chair with a desk bike. The company that makes my standing desk also makes fitness chairs, so I figured why not give it a shot? This is the FlexiSpot Sit2Go review.

What you need to know about the FlexiSpot Sit2Go

• FlexiSpot Sit2Go: $399.99 / £399.99 / €329.99
• FlexiSpot Sit2Go Pro: $449.99 (U.S. only)

The Sit2Go fitness chair is part exercise bike and part office chair, allowing you to burn calories while sitting at your desk. Beyond being a desk cycle, it also functions like any other stationary bike, so when the workday is over you can roll it out of your home office and comfortably crank out another few kilometers in front of the TV before dinner.

The FlexiSpot Sit2Go has a broad gel saddle and full mesh backrest for increased airflow and all-day sitting comfort. It doesn’t have a laptop table attachment, so you will need to pair it with your regular desk or standing desk.

It’s height-adjustable and in my experience is comfortable to type on at heights ranging from ~80-110cm (to the bottom of your desk). While it technically works with any static or standing desk you can fit it under thanks to its narrow width —42cm from pedal to pedal — be aware that if you actually plan to pedal you need clearance for your knees. I’m 6’2″ with long legs and I couldn’t cycle without hitting my knees if the bottom of my desk was any lower than a meter off the floor. This is important to account for if you don’t have an adjustable height desk.

The Sit2Go fitness chair is part exercise bike and part office chair, allowing you to burn calories while sitting at your desk.

Setting the Sit2Go fitness chair up is as quick as attaching the seat and pedals and folding the rear roller-wheel legs out. As soon as you sit down, the wheels lock in place; stand up and they roll freely again. A paddle under the seat allows you to raise or lower the seat quickly and you can make minor adjustments to the horizontal positioning of the seat and backrest during assembly. I like the build quality of the Sit2Go — it feels very sturdy and stable – but it is pretty heavy if you plan on taking it up or down stairs regularly.

The Sit2Go is available in Black or White. There is also a Sit2Go Pro model in the U.S. that costs $50 more that has a second paddle under the seat to allow you to slide the seat forwards and backwards as well as up and down. There are also versions available with more of a “bike saddle” seat style and with a laptop stand.

What’s good?

Having been disappointed in similar desk cycle products in the past, I was pleasantly surprised by the range of resistance settings on the Sit2Go. I’m a cyclist, so I really want an exercise bike — even a hybrid office chair like this — to be able to provide me with a wide gamut of difficulty settings. The FlexiSpot Sit2Go does this.

I was pleasantly surprised by the range of resistance settings on the Sit2Go.

On the easier settings the Sit2Go offers a laidback cruise, the kind of thing you might want if you’re rehabilitating, not very fit, or just want to move a little while working without getting sweaty. Switch the dial all the way to the hard side and it’s impressively heavy pedaling, like riding uphill – definitely not something you want to be doing in the middle of a Zoom call.

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The reason I like the range of resistance here is that it means the Sit2Go can grow with you as your fitness increases. I asked FlexiSpot what the resistance settings equate to and they said at 60RPM the lowest setting is 20±5W and at the higher end 145±5W. For reference, elite athletes generate between 300-400W, the average person around 150W. Maintaining anything over 100W throughout the day, even in short bursts, is going to make at least some kind of difference to your caloric expenditure.

The Sit2Go is incredibly quiet and you don’t even realize you’re pedaling half the time.

For someone like me (165-pound/75kg semi-fit cyclist), I can mindlessly ride throughout the day on the middle difficulty setting, then crank things up when I want a harder workout later. That I can do all this on one machine that’s also an office chair is pretty great. The best part about it is you don’t even realize you’re pedaling half the time and the Sit2Go is incredibly quiet, so you won’t annoy anyone around you either.

The digital readout displays all the usual stuff: timer, speed, distance, calories burned, odometer, and RPM (you’ll just need to pop the front panel off to insert two AA batteries). You might be surprised at the end of your workday to see just how far you’ve cycled without even noticing. You can easily burn between 500-600 calories an hour, which is pretty fantastic compared to what you’d normally burn while sitting idle at a desk.

What’s not so good?

Even with the seat at its full height, the Sit2Go offers a pretty cramped cycling position for taller users — you can see how far away from full extension my leg is in the photo above. If you’re not a cyclist you may not even notice, but if you ride regularly you’ll find the muscle demands a bit unusual. It’s less of a concern if you’re just casually burning a few calories at your desk during the day, but if you want to log some serious kilometers on the Sit2Go it becomes more noticeable and less comfortable. An optional bike saddle attachment with a longer or lay-back seat pole would be a great addition if FlexiSpot is listening.

The Sit2Go offers a pretty cramped cycling position for taller users.

Speaking of comfort, the seat itself is decent but not exceptionally comfy. As far as regular office chairs go it’s reasonably comparable, but if you currently have a really nice office chair, be prepared for a step down in order to gain the benefit of exercising at your desk. I tried to turn this into a good thing: every time I felt the Sit2Go was getting a little uncomfortable I’d switch from cycling to standing at my desk. The more variety you incorporate into your day, the better anyway.

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FlexiSpot Sit2Go review: Should I buy it?

At $249 (MSRP $399, currently on sale), the Sit2Go is a pretty good option if you want a basic office chair combined with an above-average fitness bike. It’s not what I would consider an all-day office chair replacement in terms of comfort, so I would recommend you either use this in addition to a regular office chair or with a standing desk so you can switch things up. It’s definitely still comfier than sitting on a bike saddle all day and the opportunity to exercise while working is worth a little discomfort.

As far as the desk cycle part of the equation goes, I was impressed. It has all the usual readout features one would expect from a stationary bike plus a great range of resistance options suitable for complete beginners to active cyclists. It’s well designed, well-built, stylish enough for what it is, and whisper-quiet, meaning you could feasibly use it in an open office setting. Personally, I’m fine leaving this one at home along with my sweaty armpits, but I’ve happily made it part of my work from home workout nevertheless.