Sheepishly asked:


My brother told me that the treadmill is not as fully as effective as running outside for some apparent reason..
Is this true? Explain please?
I find the treadmill convenient because its pretty dam cold outside and its been raining quite often.

Emily

4 Responses to “Is it true that treadmill running isnt as effective as just running outside?”

1. nonya on February 20th, 2010 9:34 pm

   treadmill is good for a steady heartbeat. outside you have hills and barking dogs, and all of a sudden you fall and scrape your knee and you sit on the ground to make sure it isn’t infected and your heartrate drops. treadmills, all you have to worry about is putting one foot in front of the other.

2. Harriet The Spy on February 21st, 2010 12:57 am

   convienent yes, but the perpetual motion is not your energy used, its mechanical.

3. kimbo1488 on February 23rd, 2010 10:59 pm

   Well it all depends on what you are really doing? If your are running just to exercise stay fit, etc or you are actually going to train to be in a race.

   To stay fit running on a treadmill is fine, people tend to run faster because its a lot easier and not as hard as the road or outside. To stay fit running on a treadmill is effective.

   Training for a race, you have to run on the road because that is where you run, on the road through grass over hills and so on.

   So it all depends on what you are really doing.

4. Rachel on February 24th, 2010 4:52 pm

   I actually find I push myself a lot harder when I am on the treadmill. When I run outside there are all sorts of factors involved, such as if it is really cold my lungs hurt and my nose runs and all that.

   I like to push myself on the treadmill by pushing up the incline and speed or mixing it up with interval training. As another answerer suggested if you are actually training for a race it will pay to run outside, but for fitness in general treadmill running is great and burns tons of calories.

   I love my little treadmill!