A Treadmill’s Effectiveness
Posted by tim on February 14th, 2007 at 11:23pm
So you want the perfect body that you see on TV whenever you’re unwinding in front of your couch with a bag of potato chips? You see them prancing in front of your eyes in their underwear. Then you wonder how exactly they got their body toned? They probably spend hour after hour in the gym, right? When you think gym, one way or another the mental image of someone on a treadmill pops up.
Having a treadmill in your house is such a convenience because it means you don’t have to go out and run. It burns fat in the comfort of your own home. As the belt runs along the conveyer, you can also adjust the machine to whether it would be as if you were climbing a steep path or a straight road. You can also adjust the speed of the belt making you either jog or run. The power of technology, huh? But is pretend running more effective than the real thing?
Seems like more and more people are getting into ‘pretend running’ because a number of homes have their own treadmills in their personal gym. In fact, running the treadmill allows you to burn more calories than other gym exercises found in the gym such as lifting weights and the elliptical.
The downsides of running on the treadmill is that the gym-goer might not be as devoted to the exercises as he or she would be if she were actually running. Go to your nearest gym and observe the people on the treadmill. Chances are, one of ‘em’s reading a book, the other’s chomping on a chocolate bar and a lot are staring upwards on the TV screen.
Difference between actually running and just settling for the treadmill is that the latter does not necessarily target the parts that are usually toned when one is really running. Putting it another way, there’s more stress when one actually runs because the road is not clear so he exerts more effort to get from point A to point B.
Where as with the treadmill, it’s just the same exercise, in and out, in and out, in and out. Yes, there’s a control that could make you quicken the pace of the belt and then you may be proud of how many calories you’ve “apparently” lost after the timer goes off. Let’s give science the benefit of the doubt. Treadmills nowadays are accurate.
An example of this is that professional runners actually train on treadmills. It’s because there’s less wind resistance. Also, being indoors one is more comfortable. It basically depends on the person’s body and how it reacts to running indoors via the treadmill or really running outdoors.
Here’s the key: if you feel you’ve sweated out all you’ve got, then you did some major work-out.
Get a treadmill. Maybe the amount of calories you’d lose in your home is pretty much the same amount you will shed if you run outsides. They may be quite expensive and cost around $600 to $4000 but remember, you’ll not only benefit from your equipment purchase because of the comfort it brings you, it’s also durable. With proper care, your treadmill can actually remain in good condition for a long time.
Besides, when it’s raining or snowing and you want to run, that’s when you wish you have one.
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