Are treadmills bad for you?
A personal trainer’s case for why you should be getting outdoors.
Whether due to safety, poor weather, or flat-out convenience, treadmills are a popular choice for many runners. Can it, however, be a complete replacement for running outdoors? If you look at things from a physiological or biomechanical perspective, it becomes quite clear that running solely on a treadmill isn’t ideal…but this matters more to some than others.
Let me explain.
Revealing the Disadvantages of Indoor Running
Before we dive in, I want to provide a key disclaimer. This article is targeted towards individuals who are looking to maximize their health and performance as a runner. If you’re simply wanting to get the heart rate up and maintain a decent level of cardio, knock yourself out and run on the treadmill as much as you’d like. For those looking to run marathons and chase personal bests, more thought needs to take place regarding the surface you’re logging your miles on.
As always, everyone’s situation will be different and there may be several scenarios in which treadmill running is prescribed for health and safety reasons. If you have a history of injuries or chronic conditions that may require specific modifications to training, please talk to a doctor or trusted health professional to build the regime right for you.
From a performance and longevity perspective, there are several reasons why treadmills shouldn’t be your only method of training. To make things clear and digestible, I’ll break it down into three main reasons. As I never want to paint with too wide of a brush, remember to take these with a grain of salt and only apply the advice that seems relevant to your training needs.
Without further ado, let’s dive in!
1) Changes to Running Economy and Joint Health
The most obvious difference between running on a treadmill versus outside is that you’re not having to propel yourself in the same way. As the surface is moving under your feet, your musculoskeletal system will have a slightly different job.
Due to the lack of unstable surfaces, quick elevation changes, and corners, you may have deficits in strength and/or endurance of smaller stabilizing muscles around the feet, ankles, knees, and hips. While self-pacing (curved) treadmills can help to some degree, it still isn’t the same.
While this may seem trivial, it adds up over miles and miles. If you were to solely run on a treadmill and then do an all-out effort during a road race, you’d likely have a higher perceived effort, muscle soreness, and injury risk both during and after activity. You can also build laziness and poor habits during the foot strike or take-off phases as you’re not truly going through the full gait.
2) Lack of Race-Day Specificity
One of the most overlooked disadvantages to training on a treadmill is that you don’t have to think about pacing and self-regulation. While I wouldn’t call it completely mindless, it’s easy to set the pace and forget about what you’re doing. Unfortunately, this won’t slide on race day as you’ll have to constantly monitor how your body is feeling, what’s going on around you, and arguably most importantly, if you’re keeping the pace.
As I mentioned above, a dose of treadmill running here and there is perfectly fine (heck, the Ingebrigstens do it), but once you look deeper into things, it’s easy to see how you’d put yourself at both a mental and physical disadvantage if you rarely exposed yourself to race-day specific stimuli during your training. Developing a strong ability to regulate your effort, especially when your watch or heart rate monitor doesn’t work, is an essential skill for pacing your efforts wisely and getting the best result possible.
3) Limits on Access, Usage, and Stimulation
This final point is more of a logistical issue than anything. If you can’t afford to have a treadmill at home, it isn’t always easy finding an empty one in a gym, let alone one that you can do your long runs on. Many fitness facilities have a limited number of machines which can often lead to time restrictions of as little as 30 minutes. This just won’t cut it for a lot of your workouts.
Additionally, the lack of stimulation with indoor running can take its toll over time. While training doesn’t always have to be full of fun, there’s something to be said about adding variety to your routes, training surface, and company during workouts to keep morale and training satisfaction high. Due to the monotonous nature of treadmills, this can be way harder to achieve which can make running feel like a chore and can even lead to burnout.
If you’re running high mileage week in and week out, make sure you’re adding enough stimulation to keep your spirits high and body healthy. You won’t regret it in the long term!
When To Consider Treadmills
It should be noted despite its few downfalls, the treadmill is still a fantastic option for many scenarios. Before we close, I wanted to touch on a few reasons why you should consider implementing treadmill running into your training:
You’ve been prescribed it by a health professional to keep things controlled and monitored
You want to do a tempo or threshold effort while keeping one exact pace
You live in an area that’s too hot, cold, or dangerous to run at certain times
You want to do easy/recovery runs with no elevation gain
You need a mental break from running outdoors :)
In Closing,
Treadmills have a time and place, but they simply can’t replace outdoor running entirely. Due to shortcomings in running economy, race-day specificity, access, and more, this should be considered a tool in your toolbox and nothing more. If you want to get the most out of your running and achieve a new PB, it’s time to lace up your shoes and head out the door. You’ll never look back!
You got this.
-DavidLiira.Kin
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