Notes on the treadmill crowd

[jon-nyc]

For about two months I’ve been going back to the gym a second time at night to do a brisk 30m walk on the treadmill.

A couple things I’ve noticed.

• far more people walk briskly on them than run. And the correlation to age isn’t as strict as you’d think. Almost all older folk walk briskly, but so do most of the yoots.

• a relatively common thing is for young men to put the incline crazy high, like 10, but then hold on to the top of the machine while they walk or run. You’re missing the point guys. You’re not really doing 10. It reminds me of the same demographic that do shit form so they can say they did more weight. Great, so you ‘curled’ 100lbs by swinging your whole body wildly and getting it up. Yay.

/rant over

[Mik]

Yep I see similar things, sacrificing form for a number. Dumb.

[89th]

That does remind me, when I was having some foot pain I switched from running to incline walking (12 degree) for 20 minutes. It was a nice cardio workout but felt easier on the joints and I was able to more easily watch the TV in front of me.

[89th]

And no I didn't hold onto the front of the treadmill like a pussy.

[Horace]

I had no idea anybody considered 10 crazy high. it's only 10 more than no incline at all.

But my calibration is to the sub-brisk pace of 2.3 mph.

For those with the magic knee joints that can handle running over the long term, good for them. But I think they are a lucky minority.

[Klaus]

I've also recently started to do cardio in the gym, but I'm using a bike trainer. I repeat "5 minutes slow, 5 minutes fast" four times, whereby "fast" means "reach max heart rate at the end of the 5 min". Interval training should beat steady-state.

[jon-nyc]

I guess at 2.3 10 wouldn’t feel crazy high, unless you’re walking backwards.