Steveo

Do you think that running on a treadmill is as good as proper running to reduce bodyfat etc. The weathers so bad at the moment that I can never be bothered to run and am thinking of buying my self a treadmill.

Oh and are mechanical treadmills any good ?

Bench_It

I don't like them because running hurts my knees. I stick to the bikes at the gym, or just walking.

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Shut Up and LIFT!!

[This message has been edited by Bench_It (edited 02-27-2001).]

Large And In Charge

There are a bunch of advantages treadmills have over the open road. You touched on the biggest one, convenience! You will be more likely to stick with a running program if you don't have to go out into the bad weather! Another advantage is that, depending on the cushion of the treadmill, it is less damaging on your knees. In time, the hard pavement of the open road will place ware and tear on your joints. Still another Advantage is that with a treadmill you can keep track of your speed, distance gone, intensity level, calories burned, etc. So I think a treadmill is a wise investment to make!

There's advantages and disadvantages on both sides of the table when comparing mechanical treadmills to manual ones. From a financial stand point, mechanical treads are more expensive to buy, run, and maintain. Even though allot of mechanical and manual treadmills are space savers where you can fold them up and depending on the brand of treadmill you get, mechanical ones still take up more space. Also mechanical treads have a constant belt speed, which can be an advantage or a disadvantage. I would have to say though that a person burns more calories on a manual treadmill because they're forced to physically move the tread opposed to a mechanical one where the machine does it.

So the bottom line is that you have a number of things to consider:

1. what type of treadmill can you aford?
2. How much space do you have for a treadmill?
3. What kind do you prefer, mechanical or manual because they both offer excellent workouts but you will be more likely to stick with a workout that you enjoy doing!


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If you build it they will come

Scotty the Body

I do both, treadmill in the winter and runn outside in the summer and I enjoy each.

I bought a treadmill from canadian tire 4 years back and it gets used often. It was about $800, not fancy but does the trick.
If I was to buy again, I would spend more money and get one that has programs or where you can set a program to automaticly incline or decline, increase speed as you run.

I would go to a gym and try one for awile and see if you like it first, its a big investment so you don't want to waist your money.

Steveo

yes I might get an inexpensive magnetic one for now see how I get on with it and then go all out and by a good one after plenty of research and testing, if I know I would actually use it.

Thanx for all the advice

RippedUp

At what speed and for how long do you run on the treadmill (Kph) for your cardio?
Since I'm trying to bulk up and am already very lean, I only warm up with a 1.2 Km run on the treadmill at a speed of 13.2 Kph which takes me around 5min20s to complete.

Mule

Treadmills are the work of the Devil!

Steveo

Mule I take it that treadmills dont take up the majority of your workout then lol

[This message has been edited by Steveo (edited 03-07-2001).]

Prince

I have a Nordatrack treadmill at home, it works well and it was only around $800.00

I prefer elyptical glyders..will get one of those next!


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train hard!

Mule

I used to work at a local fitness center, and this fella fell while he was running and had some serious burns on his face. This was before the automatic switch off pull away things. NO I prefer the elyptical.

Oldman

Your body doesn't know if you're indoors or outside...

Treadmills are generally better on the knees and lower back.

If you're prone to falling the fock off the treadmill, arms flapping and squelling like a girl you should probably leave the gym and never come back.

ggmonee

From a physics standpiont the reason running burns so many calories are the different forces that act on ones body when they are exercising. For example, when you see someones center of gravity, midsection, going up and down that tells you that that person is figthing gravity. Gravity pulls us down to the ground, and we need to be up off the ground to take a step therefore evry step we take we are figthing gravity. Another force we have to over come is the reaction force of the ground. As we have all heard, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Therefore when we are running and our foot hits the ground, the ground provides a reaction force against this we must also over come. Overcoming this, and the force of gravity takes energy, which our body uses in the form of calories. On a treadmill, because the belt is moving the ground reaction force is minimized, therefore running on the ground burns more calories than on a treadmill. That is also the reason running on a treadmill is easier on our lower extremities, the reaction force

MtnBikerChk

OLDMAN!

That's the SECOND time I've read one of your posts that referenced doing something "like a girl."

You want a piece of me? C'MON, LET'S GO.

Large And In Charge

Go get him MtnBikerChick!

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If you build it they will come

Quadzilla

I bought a treadmill for at home use and I could not live without it! I did some research first and found that the best bang for my buck was a TRUE brand treadmill. It was about $3k and it came with a 5 year warranty. It has a heart rate monitor and you can set it for various programs. If you got the cash, would definitely recommend it. Sure beats driving to the gym at the a$$ crack of dawn to do your a.m. cardio!

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aka Da Hun

Prince

It's WAR!!!



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train hard!

karategirl

Oldman,
I'm going to share something with you!
"She runs like a girl, she hits like a girl and she'll knock you out at 1:35 in the first round like a girl".......You still got time to run for your life.lol.Never under estimate the power of a women!

Steveo

Im sorry guys, When I put this thread up I never meant for it to cause Oldman to get savagely beaten up by a girl. I feel quite guilty 8)

MtnBikerChk

Don't feel guilty - or I'll come after you NEXT!!



I'm such a badass!!

Steveo

I'll be quiet

susiQ

We just got a treadmill not too long ago, I said that I wouldn't use our stairclimber (we had 2, the gym kind) b/c they sucked and were too hard to do. My honey bought a treadmill from Sam's (about 600+ after we got an extended warranty for it), I like it. That's what I did in the gym for cardio. It has those personal trainer programs on it and I just started this one (it goes up to a speed of 4.0, which is like jogging or speed walking) b/c I read that it's good to throw a lil intense cardio in with your reg. cardio every once in awhile. I hate running and jogging, but it helps. It tells fat burned and calories and the key used to turn it on is attached to a cord that you hook to your clothes incase you fall or something, it pulls it out and stops the machine. They have some pretty nice ones out there, we tried to stay in certain price range, but went over with the warranty.

susiQ

Oh yeah, don't forget you have tons of options to choose from when purchasing one (ie. manual or power incline, your settings, programs). Also, ours hooks up to a comp. if we want and to ifit.com to keep track of our progress or something...
For you guys...My man started doing cardio and he's getting lean (losing excess fat), but he is still beefing up with the weights.

cleo243

what's this ifit thing you're talking about? it sounds pretty cool

susiQ

I have NO CLUE!!! I guess you hook up a computer to the treadmill (it showed a pic. of a laptop, I think) and it does some kinda program for you, I don't know if you have to pay for it or what...I think it also had some kinda radio or cd player hookup. I will try to remember to look at the info tonight and get back to ya!!!