It is sad to say, but your beloved treadmill is slowly damaging your body. Every year, chiropractors and physiotherapists end up making money off the winter treadmillers.

You see, when you walk, or run, on a treadmill, you lift your leg, drive it forward, place it back down on the treadmill, and THEN THE TREADMILL MOVES YOUR LEG BACKWARD FOR YOU.

When you walk, or run, on the un-moving ground, you lift your leg, drive it forward, place it back down, and pull with the hamstrings to move your body forwards through space. This is a fundmental difference in movement cordination.

Over time, treadmillers end up with a muscle imbalance between the front and back of their legs. This can contribute to all kinds of injuries. Typically, if one only uses a treadmill, one will not notice imbalance-type injuries for a long time. They show up frequently in those who use a treadmill for the majority of their workouts during a season, or lengthy time period, and then switch back to waling, or running, on natural terrain. In the treadmiller’s mind, an easy 6 km run that they’ve done all winter on the treadmill should be no problem no that the snow is gone and spring is here. But half their muscles are undertrained for the distance, pace and intensity they wish to go. Voila: injury!

Additionally, the treadmill is very flat and the ankle has to do very little balancing over the course of a workout. So when the seasonal treadmiller decides to run trails instead of a flat track outside, he now challenges all his stabilization musculature well beyond its limits and is highly likely to create an injury to his knees, hips or ankles.

This last situation can easily trap a person who abstains from treadmills but does all his or her workouts on very flat terrain. As soon as the workout intensity is increased by terrain variations, muscular balancing systems are overloaded and will blowout more easily.

This is why the walking, or running, workout you do on one surface is more tiring than on another. You are using more muscles to stabilize as you traverse different topography.

Now what about the poor treadmiller? Sometimes, it is just too hot, or too cold, to workout outside. Or perhaps your training is always done on a smmoth hardwood, or concrete, surface. The solution is one adocated by the LI family’s Daoqiquan methods for over 400 years: vary your training surface regularly! Use the treadmill, just not exclusively. Sprinkle in enough other surfaces so that the body becomes balanced. If you’e been trapped by your treadmill and wish to move to the real world, start with a shorter distance and slower pace (lower intensity) and give your tissues time to adapt before matching your new workout to the old one.

There are problems with nearly every training modality. Each problem must be considered and taken into account so it doesn’t prevent your from reaching your training goals.

Happy circling,

Dr. Yancy Orchard, Shizi
Orchard Kung Fu: “The Martial Way of Vitality”
Jiulong Baguazhang, Flying Dragon Qigong, Traditional Chinese Weapons
Saskatoon, SK, Canada
www.NineDragonBaguazhang.ca
Youtube: XinFuGompa