Treadmill Running: Is the Treadmill Really the Dreadmill? - Coach Tip Tuesday

For almost as long as I’ve been a runner, I’ve heard the phrase “Treadmill?!  More like dreadmill.”  Most runners have probably heard something similar as well.  But is the treadmill truly something to dread?  Whether you love it or hate it, the treadmill has become the most popular piece of exercise equipment and is leveraged by athletes and exercise enthusiasts alike.  There are many pros and many cons to utilizing a treadmill as part of one’s training, and athletes would do well to be aware of all of them. 

What is a Treadmill?

Most of us probably know what a treadmill is, but as you’ll see, diving into the specifics of what this device is and how it came to exist as we know it is illuminating.

A treadmill is an exercise machine, typically with a continuous belt, that allows a person to run or walk in place.  William Cubitt invented the treadmill - called a treadwheel at the time - in 1818 in England.  It was designed as a prison rehabilitation device; incarcerated prisoners were meant to sweat and suffer.  The physical exertion of using a treadmill was meant to reform them and “cure” their criminality.  In short, treadmills were invented as punishment and torture devices.  

Separated by partitions (so that they could not socialize), up to 24 prisoners at a time could be made to walk on Cubitt’s machine.  In the beginning, the treadmill was used to grind corn or pump water.  However, this shifted rather quickly, and the device ultimately was used more as a torture device rather than a work machine.  The act of moving without ever actually going anywhere was viewed as a punishment.

Treadmills arrived in the United States in 1822 to be used in prisons here.  By 1842, they were being used in more than half of all prisons located in England, Wales, and Scotland.  However, the initial popularity of the treadmill didn’t last.  Toward the end of the 19th century, several acts were passed that labeled the treadmill as cruel and inhumane and called for them to be banned.  By 1900, only 13 treadmills were in use in the United Kingdom and they had faded from use in the United States as well.

However, the treadmill had a bold remarketing that started in 1913 when a U.S. patent for a “training machine” was granted to Claude Lauraine Hagen.  Hagen’s original designs for his “training-machine” look extremely similar to the treadmills of today.  In the 1960s, William Staub created the first home treadmill, a machine called the PaceMaster 600.  One could say that the treadmill has benefited from one of the best remarketing and rebranding campaigns in history.  Today in the 21st Century, the treadmill is the top-selling piece of exercise equipment in the United States and a whopping 51.8 million Americans - 15% of the U.S. population - use one for exercise either at home or in a gym.

Is the Treadmill a Modern-Day Torture Device?

While treadmills are no longer employed as punishment for incarcerated individuals, one could accurately draw some parallels to our present-day experience on treadmills and the experience 19th Century prisoners had on these same devices.  Going nowhere is boring, to say the least.  It’s mindless and does feel like a form of psychological torture to many people.  It is these parallels of experience that have led many people to contemporarily refer to treadmills as “dreadmills”.  

By contrast, walking or running outside often feels liberating, rather than tortuous.  Moving through actual space and experiencing an ever-changing environment is much more mentally stimulating than going nowhere while remaining in the same place.  Researchers compared the results of several studies that considered the psychological impact of both indoor and outdoor workouts.  They concluded that “Compared with exercising indoors, exercising in natural environments was associated with greater feelings of revitalization and positive engagement, decreases in tension, confusion, anger, and depression, and increased energy.”  The real and impactful benefit of spending time outside is something that we have lost sight of in our current culture, where we spend a whopping 93% of our available time indoors.    

The Drawbacks of Treadmills

One of the biggest drawbacks to treadmills that I see is that the treadmill is running the user; the user is not running the treadmill.  This reality is inherent in how a treadmill itself is designed and how it works (by setting the moving belt to a given speed), so no amount of mental gymnastics can change the fact that the treadmill is running the user.  When you set a given speed or pace on a treadmill, the treadmill belt moves at a pre-determined speed setting.  In order not to be thrown off or injured by the device, you need to keep up at that exact, precise speed that the belt is moving at.  This means that you need to conform what you are doing and how you are moving to keep up with the treadmill.  

You are not moving under your own power the same way that you do when the surface under you is stationary, and your actual running mechanics are different on a treadmill than they are if you are running outside.  As an example, you are using your quadriceps slightly more and your hamstrings slightly less when you run on a treadmill than you would be if you were running under your own power.  Additionally, the angles of several of your joints (your ankle and knee chief among them) are different on a treadmill.  By running or walking on a treadmill, you are letting the treadmill dictate the work (not just the workout) for you, and you are moving your body in a way that is different than the demand you will be imposing on it in real-world scenarios, outdoor training and race day being the most significant of these.  In short, having to conform to what the treadmill is demanding is not a skill that translates to real-world scenarios, where you have to do the work in outdoor training and racing.  

As much as people don’t like to hear it, specificity matters.  Always.  Over the years, I have watched many, many athletes who train exclusively on treadmills (either for a given season - such as Winter - or for all of their training) struggle when they attempt to transition to outdoor running or walking.  By forcing the user to be in compliance with a preset speed, treadmills increase the probability that an athlete will overextend themselves, which in turn increases their probability of injury.  Outside or on a stable, stationary surface, you would (and do!) make micro-adjustments in pace and speed due to how your body is feeling in response to the changing terrain and conditions and as you fatigue.  Additionally, you build up activity-specific strength and mechanics when it comes to muscular activation and joint angles.

When using treadmills, my experience has been that many athletes “set it and forget it”, meaning that they set a specific speed or pace and then “hang on” to that pace for the planned length of the interval or workout that they are doing.  If they adjust the pace at all, they do not adjust the pace of the treadmill nearly as much as they would be microadjusting themselves when moving under their own power.  Unfortunately, many athletes fall into the fallacy of believing that they are “less than” if they need to slow down the speed that they decide that they should be running at on a treadmill, and they will desperately do whatever they need to to stick with the same speed they originally chose for the interval or the workout.  

While many modern-day treadmills are calibrated relatively accurately, my experience has been that no running or cycling indoor data - ever - has been exactly, 100% accurate when it comes to pace or speed.  (Indoor swimming workout paces from indoor swimming pools are accurate because they are conducted in an environment where the distance is known and where athletes are actually traversing actual distance, versus staying in the same place like one does on a treadmill or indoor cycling trainer.  Endless swimming pools, on the other hand, are just as inaccurate as treadmill or indoor cycling trainer speeds.)  This is true both for the speed settings on the treadmill itself and for devices that record indoor speed data, such as Garmin wearables.

As I’ve said before, bad data is worse than no data.  Thus, the fact that the speed and pace data from treadmill workouts is not accurate is problematic.  Over the years, I’ve had several athletes complete the same workout both outdoors and then indoors on a treadmill.  Their recorded paces have never been the same.  In one particularly memorable example, the athlete’s difference in pace between an outdoor and treadmill workout was a whopping 2:38 per mile.  Yes.  Two minutes and thirty-eight seconds per mile.  This impact of bad data like this can be extremely far-reaching when looking at the context of a training plan.  The best predictor of what you will be able to do in the future is what you are able to do right now.  As such, I leverage what I know to be true about an athlete’s current abilities when I plan their training, and I glean this information from a combination of their workout data and their subjective feedback.  If that athlete and I had utilized the inaccurate pace data that was recorded from their treadmill workouts to inform our choices about their future training, our perception of their abilities would have been so inaccurate that the negative ripples would have been too numerous to count.

The Benefits of Treadmills

All this being said, treadmills do afford us some major benefits.  The ability to train indoors when extreme weather conditions make it legitimately unsafe to train outdoors is the most significant benefit treadmills provide.  Being able to train at any time of day is also often a benefit, as many athletes are hesitant to go for a run outside when it is dark.  Being able to do a workout without interruptions due to intersections, traffic lights, or vehicle traffic is also a plus for many runners.  Visually impaired athletes can train on their own safely by using treadmills.  For young parents, the ability to exercise without having to go elsewhere (and therefore without having to seek childcare) is a massive benefit as well.

While I did lament the inaccuracy of pace data on treadmills, the fact that treadmills do allow you to control the speed and get used to what it feels like to maintain a consistent speed can be a positive thing.  This is especially true for new or inexperienced runners, who often struggle with learning what it feels like to hold a consistent pace for an extended period of time.  By paying attention to how the body feels and responds to the steady-state imposed by the treadmill, athletes can attempt to replicate those same sensations when they are completing a run under their own power.

For athletes who are recovering from an injury, illness, or surgery, a treadmill can offer a safe location to resume workouts again.  If needed, the side rails can provide stability and support.  Additionally, the ability to control the speed, incline, and intensity can be useful for individuals coming back from injury or illness, as it can be a more controlled environment than self-powered workouts (especially for those athletes who have a tendency to do too much too soon).

As I’ve preached constantly over the years, consistency is critical for any athlete who wants to see sustained gains and who wants to reach their goals.  For many people, treadmills offer a very real way to achieve that consistency.  If it’s a choice between doing a workout on a treadmill and not doing a workout at all, doing the workout on a treadmill is almost always going to be the better option.

Finally, the very thing that made treadmills torture devices in the first place can actually be a benefit.  By facing the very real, boring Discomfort Dragon that is the treadmill, athletes have an opportunity to build more mental stamina.  Yogi Berra, the legendary catcher for the New York Yankees, said that “Baseball is 90% mental.  The other half is physical.”  I think this can be applied to running as well; while running (clearly) has a large physiological component, the mental side of running is just as important - if not more so! - than the physical.  Embracing opportunities to both experience discomfort and build mental stamina is important in the long run (pun intended) for athletes who want to seek sustained gains in their running and who want to maintain a long-standing running habit or practice over the course of their lives.

The Bottom Line

Treadmills may have started as torture devices, but they have evolved into a tool that can be leveraged effectively by runners.  That being said, there are some very real limitations and drawbacks to treadmill running, and it’s important that athletes understand these so that they can make informed decisions about how and when to incorporate treadmill running into their training.

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Sources:

J, Thompson Coon, et al. “Does Participating in Physical Activity in Outdoor Natural Environments Have a Greater Effect on Physical and Mental Wellbeing than Physical Activity Indoors? A Systematic Review.” Environmental Science & Technology, 1 Mar. 2011, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21291246/.

Peters, Diane. “Treadmills Were Meant to Be Atonement Machines.” JSTOR Daily, 2 May 2018, daily.jstor.org/treadmills-were-meant-to-be-atonement-machines/.

Van Hooren, Bas, et al. “Is Motorized Treadmill Running Biomechanically Comparable to Overground Running? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cross-over Studies.” Sports Medicine, vol. 50, 4 Dec. 2019, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01237-z. 

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