Q & A: The Treadmill

Q: Danny, I have lost most of my weight by doing intervals on the treadmill.  Since summer is here, I would rather run outside than go to the gym but I am worried the weight will come back because I will be sprinting on my own instead of on a treadmill…make sense?  Should I be worried about that, or do you think I will be fine doing intervals outside?

A: I get this, should I run outside or on the treadmill question, quite a bit.  While neither is necessarily wrong, I do prefer non-treadmill running.  I’d much rather see you run outdoors (or indoors if it is on an indoor track, for example).  And here’s why…

The treadmill switches your hams and glutes off.  When your foot hits the treadmill, the belt pulls you through.  So, the belt does much of the work for you as your leg goes back.  Again, taking your hams and glutes out of play.  This is a problem for a few reasons;

1) You burn less calories on a treadmill (as opposed to “real” running).

2) The contribution from the quads is still there, so this can lead to an imbalance which can lead to an injury (knees won’t like you).  Awhile back I read an article that Strength CoachAlwyn Cosgrove contributed to, and here is what he wrote in regards to this imbalance;

“Walking a mile is about two thousand reps in the sagittal plane at about one and a half to two times your bodyweight. Jogging would be around fifteen hundred total reps at about two to three times your bodyweight.

And since the treadmill switches your hamstring and glutes off — your foot hits the belt and the belt pulls you through — it’s mainly a quad exercise.

So let’s say a client does three miles three times per week for one year (and I’m being conservative).

That’s 6000 reps x 3 days per week x 52 weeks, which equals 936,000 reps of knee extension work. Or 468,000 reps per leg.

Let’s say the load going through with the knee was a measly 100 pounds. That’s 4.6 million pounds of work for the quad with absolutely no hamstring work.

Think of it this way: if you did 400,000 reps of triceps extensions with 100 pounds you’d get four million pounds of volume. If you didn’t balance that out with biceps curls you’d expect the elbow joint to hurt, right? You’re damn straight it would!

So long term walking or running on the treadmill is almost guaranteeing knee pain. And that’s not even the worst part. Since the hamstring is switched off you’re actually burning even less calories than you would if you were to walk on the ground!”

3) The mechanics of running on the treadmill are not the same as “real” running as hip flexion angle increases (affecting the whole hip extensor mechanism) – this will lead to substitution patterns and even further increase your chances of injury (now your knees REALLY, REALLY, REALLY don’t like you).

The Winter

Growing up in Illinois, I know it would be a lot for me to ask you to go run outside when you looking at a negative 23 wind chill.  Therefore, I won’t ask you do that (man, I’m too nice).  You can get just as good of  a cardio workout indoors, without ever stepping on a treadmill.  For many people, I prefer “non-traditional” ways to get your cardio in, as I talked in this post.  Below is an example from that previous post I made…

When it comes to crappy weather, no excuses!

If for whatever reason you love to run on the treadmill, I’m not saying that you should never step foot on it again.  But for the above reasons, it would be wise for you to use sparingly.  And in a perfect world, not use the t-mill at all.  After all, who wants to burn less calories per session?  Who want to increase their chances of injury (in the long term)?  And who wants to jump on a machine that alters running mechanics, further increasing your chances of injury?  Not I.  One more thing; try to run on a good surface as much as possible.  Something like “field turf,” a track, or some grass that is not too bumpy.  These options are much easier on the joints than the hard streets and sidewalks.  Enough typing, I’m going to go lift and lower heavy things, and then go find a nice hill to sprint up.  Multiple times.  Now that sounds like some fun, doesn’t it?!?