If you google it, you’ll find hundreds of articles talking about the pros and cons of running on treadmills. I have run on treadmills since I started running, back in 2003 and have accumulated enough experience to deliberately say: a true runner runs exclusively outdoors.
Many people will disagree and they will have a list of pro-treadmills arguments ready to fight back. I really don’t care about those facts, they are valid for sure, but they don’t change my perception of what running on treadmills represent both physically and psychologically.
Treadmills were historically used as a method of reforming offenders in prison, an innovation introduced by Sir William Cubitt in 1817. The first private health club in the U.S. was started by Professor Louis Attila in 1894. It is undeniable that treadmills became very popular at gyms everywhere in the world and they are great for warm-ups before other exercises. They’re also great at home as an exotic piece of furniture to hang clothing. They helped medicine to establish some protocols for identifying some heart-related diseases and are a terrific tool for people willing to lose weight or in rehabilitation. But we are talking about runners, the ones who run because they love it, and they want to push their bodies to the next challenge, be it a 5k, a 10k or half-marathons, marathons or even ultra-marathons. For runners, running on treadmills is somewhat like cheating.
Are you a hamster?
From the mechanics standpoint running on a treadmill or running on the deck of a moving boat is essentially the same thing: your muscles have to “defeat” gravity in order to transfer the movement from one leg to the other. But the treadmill offers an additional force brought to you by a moving belt and this makes all the difference to our neuromuscular dynamics. To anybody that isn’t convinced that for our brain and body running on a treadmill is different, just remember what you feel right after you step out of it.
Since I am not a biophysics specialist, I am not going to go deeper on these differences, many of them aren’t even completely understood. It is common sense, though, that running on treadmills is easier than running on an equivalently flat distance outdoors because the ground is smooth and there is no wind resistance. Studies measuring the difference find that an average person running between 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h) and 9 miles per hour (14 km/h) will expend between 0 and 5 percent more energy running outdoors. A person running outdoors faster than 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) (6 minute mile pace) will expend up to 10% more energy than an indoor runner. Treadmills can approximate the additional effort of running outdoors by setting the incline to 1%, which theoretically account for air resistance.
What I think is more determinant is the fact that you can sustain a higher speed on a treadmill as opposed to outdoor running and as an effect people tend to run at unnatural speeds on treadmills, which in turn may lead to injuries. How many times you were proud of running at 12.5MPH (20km/h) for some minutes on a treadmill and you knew for sure that wouldn’t even be possible on the streets? Many, if not all, of the running-related injuries I had in the past were directly related to workouts I did on treadmills trying those unnatural speeds that artificially helped me feel more like an elite runner. Speed trainings (sprints) are much easier to control on treadmills, but they are the most dangerous. If you can afford a GPS-based running tool, I highly recommend you do it and start doing speed trainings outdoors, you’ll quickly notice how much more difficult it is to sustain higher speeds.
I’ve seen many runners developing bad habits because they almost never run outdoors. When you have to run against the wind and on uneven surfaces everything changes and a treadmill-runner will resemble a ballerina with a short bouncing gait.
One of the strongest arguments in pro of treadmills is that they reduce impact to your joints. Surely this is true, running on concrete and asphalt hurts much more, but come on, just go slower, respect your body and you’ll be fine wherever you run on. The other strong argument is that sometimes weather sucks, like during wintertime. I’m training for a marathon during wintertime in NYC to show that this isn’t a critical barrier, just gear up and go.
So, that’s the deal, you are a runner not a hamster, you’re proud of being a runner and going farther and for longer, exploring the ground where you live in or visit; you appreciate the wind on your face, the sun, the rain, the snow, natural hills, you like to see other people’s faces while they do what you’re doing. Running outdoors can be much less solitary.
Still not convinced? Check out how natural this dog looks:
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