Should I put my treadmill on a 1.5% incline or not?

Sorry Apologist. I wasn't attacking you personally or your skills. I was simply promoting a love of the great outdoors.

On the other hand, I never claimed stud status. Your training volumes double mine and more.

Good luck through the winter. I hope that you stay healthy. May your hands stay warm and your temper cool through these dark winter months.

mother clucker wrote:

You are overstating your case. You MAY develop an imbalance. This may have been the case for you, but it does not apply to everyone.

No I'm not. Not MAY, but WILL given enough running/time. Yes it does, physics and the principles of physical training apply to everyone.

Sorry to bust your bubble but putting your treadmill on 1.5% grade is not the cure all answer you are looking for. Try again.

You remind me of the investment bankers who really don't understand finance but they memorized a bunch of neat short cut formulas that work alot of the time. Hit them with a unique situation and they are completely lost.

Forget the quick formula answer to treamill training of adding 1.5% grade to counter-act the lack of headwind. Instead understand running and physical training and realize one is not the same as the other (headwind and incline) and there are unintended effects to your formula answer. In this case namely that your quads are over worked and hamstrngs under worked and as such will not gain strength in proportion to each other. If you don't believe me study the effects of hill/incline running in training.

What happens if you eat a bean burrito before running, and fart at a constant amount of pressure during your run on the treadmill? How does that fit into the effort/resistance factor? Do you have to increase the incline of the treadmill to compensate, or increase the pace? What if doing so proportionately increases the pressure at which you fart? How do you compensate for the slight amount of weight loss the runner experiences as he discharges said gas? Also, if he farts in a slightly downward direction, do you have to compensate for the slight amount of lift created? Does someone have a chart or link to such a study?

I have beaten my PR on the treadmill reasonably comofortably (have run 15:10 not flat out on treadmill and 15:29 on track)

The idea that 'it is doing the work for you' is bollocks but there is no wind resistance which must help.

normal wrote:

I have beaten my PR on the treadmill reasonably comofortably (have run 15:10 not flat out on treadmill and 15:29 on track)

The idea that 'it is doing the work for you' is bollocks but there is no wind resistance which must help.

Again, treadmills aren't calibrated well. Distance/pace is only approximate. That has a bigger effect than lack of wind resistance.

If you stand on the treadmill backwards and run you can go really fast. Almost like there is no resistance at all.

"I would rather just go faster than add elevation - cardiovascularly it has the same effect but at the advantage of turning over faster"

I agree with this so much. Did anyone ever see the Seb Coe documentary called "Born to Run"? He talks about doing 800s on a slight downhill to improve his turnover. If there's a way to get your legs moving faster without increased impact (a flat treadmill, for example), it seems like doing so -- at least on occasion -- would be a good idea.

Obviously depends on what you're trying to accomplish for the session, though.

Hey Treadmill Apologist. I've been running on my treadmill since 1998. I tore cartiledge in my knee and broke my tailbone when I slipped on the ice.

I'm all for feeling like the tough winters make me a tougher runner and all that, but the treadmill allows me to get my miles in and stay injury free.

That said, I always run with it flat. I tried to use the incline--and I'm someone who lives in a very hilly place--I'm used to a lot of huge hills, but the treadmill on a constant incline gave me achillies problems.

I tried stretching, but my problems persisted. I put it back down flat and recovered. My treadmill has served me well as long as I don't use (or overuse) the incline. A couple times I've used a pre-program where it goes up and down while I run.

If you're bent on using the incline, try in in 0.5% increments (per run). Try it at 0.5 for one day and if you still feel fine afterward, you can try it at 1%. Up it more gradually if your treadmill will allow for that.

Better to stay healthy and keep running.

I'm 48 and my treadmill has been a huge help to me (I also use an elliptical with great results--on it for 90 minutes usually for each workout).

Stay fit, stay healthy, run well. Good luck to you.

bump!