Treadmill Running Has Been Getting A Bad Rep. Here’s How I’m Integrating It Into My Workouts
This tool can bring your fitness to the next level
I always hated running.
In the past, when I ran for 10–20 minutes, my lungs would already give out pretty easily. I just didn’t know how to run most optimally but I was training in the National Volleyball Team which gave me quite a strong anaerobic base and VO2 max to begin with.
Ever since 2 years ago, when I stopped training for the National Team, my cardiovascular health has gone down tremendously.
Being an ex-competitive athlete myself, I could feel it pretty easily and I knew I needed to do something about it since:
I want to build my cardiovascular health more sustainably
I needed to train for my yearly IPPT in Singapore
And I knew I wasn’t going back to that training intensity in the National Team.
I started learning about the idea of zone 2 cardio to build my aerobic base so I thought I gave it a shot for a few months and surprisingly it worked!
Along the way, going for zone 2 runs outside consistently in Singapore isn’t easy. With the hot weather starting from 8 am till 7 pm, running during that period was exhausting and wasn’t productive.
Yet, I didn’t have much experience with running on the treadmill and I simply didn’t feel like it’d mimic the act of running outside anyways but I thought I’d give it a shot.
How The Treadmill Has Gotten A Bad Rep?
The things I hear about running on the treadmill are usually negative.
The main one the treadmill is termed the “dreadmill” because it’s regarded as an object that people most often dread when going to the gym or when they want to get a cardio session in.
The thing with the treadmill is you’re placed in a position, almost similar to a hamster wheel, where the treadmill belt constantly moves below your feet at a pace that you’ve selected. Most people find it boring and that’s true to some extent but there are ways around it which I’ll talk about later.
Yet, it’s probably the safest option when it comes to running since there’s usually some cushioning on the belt itself, the impact on your knees won’t be as great as running outdoors and there’s loads of controllable in the gym from the temperature to the speed and inclination of your runs. And you can run on the treadmill just about any time you want without having to be affected by environmental conditions.
Having that flexibility is the main reason why I incorporate runs on the treadmill each week.
But some people have also mentioned that having a 1% incline would provide sufficient adjustments to road running since it mimics the environmental constraints in real life.
Even Mo Farah, a top elite marathoner, uses the treadmill during his runs as well, especially for recovery runs and runs to build his aerobic base especially when he’s traveling.
So it’s not all bad.
How to make your runs more enjoyable on the treadmill?
Watch a show — Turn on autopilot to shift your focus away from the run itself and towards something else distracting
Change things up — Vary your runs by going for zone 5 cardio on some days, tempo runs on some, and zone 2 cardio on others, it makes running more enjoyable and increases your VO2 max too
What About Road Running?
Road running on the other hand has loads of benefits apart from the cons that running on a treadmill has.
More than those benefits, it helps to strengthen your ligaments and activate different parts of your legs and your entire body because every step is typically quite different. You’ll also be using more of your stabilizer muscles and your runs will generally be higher in impact which might lead to more injuries.
The best part is you’ll be outdoors more often.
It literally is a no-brainer method to improve your mood since you’ll be exposed to sunlight, and vitamin D and it gives you time to step away from the technology you’ve been attached to the entire day.
Needless to say, road running will always be used by elite marathoners to train for their competitive runs since it easily mimics actual race conditions during race day.
But the question is whether road running is superior to running compared to running on the treadmill.
Does It Still Have A Place?
You won’t like this answer but the answer is it depends, but you can easily determine it.
Whether you should continue your runs on the treadmill is largely dependent on your running goals. Ask yourself what are you running for. Are you running to become fitter? Are you running to build your aerobic base? Are you running to train for a race?
These questions will determine your result because if you’re training for a race, you’re likely working towards:
Similar environmental conditions as race day
Building up aerobic capacity the longer your race runs get
Similar track conditions as race days and it works best if you’re running at the same location
These reasons will probably lead you to mostly road running but you might still want to incorporate some runs on the treadmill for low-impact recovery.
But if you’re simply running for your aerobic base, you might as well benefit from running on the treadmill since:
It’s a relatively lower-impact workout
You work your cardiovascular health from the comfort of the gym
You will likely not miss workouts due to environmental conditions
Yet, you might consider adding some runs outside as well since it helps with your mental health too.
For me, my goals are a combination of the 2 above and it’s pretty cyclical because my IPPT only occurs once a year. So during that period, I’d focus more on road running whereas during other periods, I’d do more runs on the treadmill since I’m just maintaining and slightly improving my aerobic base.
Furthermore, I also want to improve my VO2 max and have the ability to increase my pace whenever I want on the treadmill can easily be monitored too.
If anyone’s curious, in a week, my runs usually consist of 1 easy zone 2 run, 1 zone 2 long run, and 1 hard zone 5 run and I’ve seen great progress in the past couple of months.
Conclusion
The treadmill is definitely not a useless workout machine in my opinion.
People just need to learn how to use it when necessary. If you love to run outdoors, go ahead, it’ll do wonders for you. But if you’re working on a much more specific goal, you’ll train more optimally if your approach is more targeted.
Incorporating some runs on the treadmill shouldn’t be seen as an inferior method to get cardio in. It has its benefits and people should view it as a tool that they can use because it can take your runs to the next level.
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I’m Maguire, a hybrid athlete incorporating runs and functional training and I love experimenting with Fitness. I write about engineering and fitness. If you’re interested, join my newsletter to learn more about my experience with my fitness experiments!
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