I spend at least 50% of my days (some days closer to 90%) in different gyms. Yes, I pretty much live in workout clothes, lucky me! The first thing I do when I walk into a gym is survey the room and see whose doing what and what equipment is available for my client and me. Most of the time the gym is empty. You’d be surprised how many people don’t take advantage of having an at-home gym. But when there are people in the gym I can almost always count on them being on the treadmill. I personally hate the treadmill. If you’ve got an hour to spare, then sure why not, but why not make the most of your workout in a shorter period of time? Yes, it is possible to burn more calories and keep your heart rate up in half the time using nothing but your body weight and for an added bonus maybe a couple dumbbells. Most of you have heard of this style of training known as HIIT because it’s still very much trending, which is why it blows my mind that more people aren’t doing it! In case you are late to the party, HIIT stands for high intensity interval training and as the ladies at Huffington Post describe, “HIIT is a technique in which you give all-out, one hundred percent effort through quick, intense bursts of exercise, followed by short, sometimes active, recovery periods.” So how do you feel about burning more fat than you would on the treadmill in nearly half the time? In that extra 30 minutes you would normally spend on the treadmill you could be upstairs cooking dinner or soaking your poor achy muscles in a bath.
So here’s my real issue with the treadmill. I see so many people on there running at the lowest speed possible so they can still manage to read their latest issue of People or text on their phone. Now, I’m a big fan of multi-tasking, but when you’re tuned out of what you’re there to do in the first place, which is to work out, guess what so is your body. If you’re able to text and run at the same time you’re not exerting yourself. The reason it’s called “work out” is because it requires real work to get results.
The treadmill also calls for a repetitive motion so unless you are constantly switching up your pace or the level of incline your body quickly adapts to the relatively low-intensity and therefore, less effort is required to complete your workout. When there is less work on the body guess what? You get less results.
Most people, women especially, are concerned about getting their cardio in, which is why they immediately flock to the treadmill. But half of your body is neglected in this activity and there is little strength building involved here. Most people are naturally stronger in their lower extremities so unless you put focus on strengthening your upper body you will only be increasing the muscular imbalance in the body. While, running does require effort on your legs there is no isolation work happening here so your weaker extremities (which we all have) are masked through body compensation. What I mean is your stronger extremities work harder to make up for your weaknesses and as a result your weaknesses remain just that, weak.
Doing high intensity interval training is one way that you can create a win win situation. You are able to keep your heart rate elevated, while also building strength in your upper and lower body. Why not work on building strength throughout your entire body?
Nothing screams boredom, like the treadmill. Part of the beauty of working out is the versatility you can do in your movement to keep your body challenged, but also just to keep it interesting. If you like the treadmill because you can zone out, then are you really working hard? Why bother if you aren’t going to challenge yourself? There is always room for improvement when it comes to exercise so switch it up!
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