Certain questions have dogged health professionals for years. Questions like ‘does acupuncture actually work?’, or ‘Can you lose weight and gain muscle at the same time?’ Another one you hear often, ‘Is the treadmill an effective training apparatus?’ Let’s have a look.
Is the treadmill effective?
This is a deep question with many different arguments for and against. Let’s start with a hypothetical: You’re recovering from an injury. Do you want to head out for a run, get a few miles away from home only to find out your injury is still bothering you? Only if you love long, frustrating walks home in tight pants or short shorts.
The treadmill has its strengths
- If you’re strapped for time and need to get your run in.
- You want to work on running form. The treadmill is a place to run without distraction. No pot holes, no cars, no turns, no hills (except for those you program in). You can work on getting your stride rate up by doing a :10 stride check (aim for 15 strides on one leg over :10). You can also easily film yourself and have a look after.
- The weather outside is God Awful and flat out unsafe the treadmill can be your best friend.
- You want to take the Sound test.
What is the sound test?
The sound test is simple. How much sound are you making as you run? Spoiler alert- efficient running is quiet. You are more likely to get hurt (shin splints, plantar fasciitis) or injured (stress fracture or achilles tendonitis) if you run loud. Inefficient running on the treadmill is incredibly loud; I once heard what sounded like a herd of elephants hammering away on the treadmill only to find a petite woman with bad running form.
If you’re running loud my advice is shorten your stride and stretch your feet. Shorter strides mean your foot is landing closer to your center of gravity. This minimizes breaking forces lessening strain on the joints. The best running cadence, as stated above, is 90+ strides a minute (180 if you count both feet).
Stretching your feet is one of the best things you can do for yourself, but I never see anyone do it. I think I’ll have to write a blog post about this one.
So there. It’s okay to jog on the treadmill. Just don’t make it a habit because the treadmill, for all it’s uses, has limitations.
The Limitations of the Treadmill
The major limitation of treadmill running is that the machine’s motor puts you into hip extension (fancy way of saying it extends your leg behind you). Once your foot hits the ground underneath you it is the job of your glutes and hamstrings to pull the leg under you and propel you forward. The motor on the treadmill does this for you. Your foot strikes and is swept underneath you by the machine. The result is less activation in your glutes and hamstrings. No Glutes and hammies = FLAT ASS.
Sir Mix A-Lot would not approve.
Other limitations?
Boredom. You can have great tunes and I bet you anything your eyes will still drift over to the clock every minute or so.
Sometimes I’m running on the treadmill (and not doing my favorite treadmill interval workout) and I’ll glance over at the time elapsed clock and it will read 10:15 or something like that. And then time passes. I keep running. The urge to look back at the clock returns but I resist. Eyes ahead. Keep moving. Another minute passes (by my account) before the urge to look returns. I resist again; for another and another. Finally I glance over expecting the clock to read 16:30 or 17 minutes.
11:35.
Well shit. You know if I had one day left on this world and wanted to make that day last, I may just jump on the treadmill.
What else are we missing?
You’re inside. Your missing out on so much. Trees, leaves, sunsets, beautiful architecture, night runs…
But wait, you say. I can watch TV while on the treadmill. That makes the time pass, right? If you can watch TV and follow what’s going on you’re probably not running very hard.
SAID Principle: The Body Specifically Adapts to Imposed Demands
If you only ask your body to run on flat, even surfaces your body will get adapt only to run on flat even surfaces. No pot holes, no hills, no turns, no mud, no grass, no uneven or cracked pavement. You didn’t study for those tests. Your foot placement is predictable so your foot may develop a limited range of motion.
If your feet have limited range of motion you’ll fail the sound test.
Final thought: is the treadmill effective
While it has it’s uses no Runner has ever had the Best-Run-Ever on the treadmill. Tell me I’m wrong.