TREADMILL: GRADE = % INCLINE

Ask Moen.

Grade and % incline are the same thing. So really it does not matter if the treadmill has the grade or % incline listed on the panel. Both are 'y' feet per 100 feet horizontal movement.

Is this the same as the angle?

treadmiler wrote:

Is this the same as the angle?

NO. 100% grade is steep (I suppose 45 degrees), but not close to vertical, 90 degrees is vertical.

Yes, 100% grade, or gradient, is 45 degs.

Grade is not as acuurate a term as percentage, but one assumes they are the same on the TM.

Well keeping with the treadmill theme...I really enjoy running on a treamill, much more than the road for lonely reasons, and so I was wondering:

I read somewhere that a 1.5% incline was equal to running on the road. Has anyone else heard the same or different?

Hey wrote:

Well keeping with the treadmill theme...I really enjoy running on a treamill, much more than the road for lonely reasons, and so I was wondering:

I read somewhere that a 1.5% incline was equal to running on the road. Has anyone else heard the same or different?

There was a paper published that showed that at lower running speeds (cannot recall the upper end) that 1% grade on the TM is needed to reach the same energy expenditure as running outside. The reason is that on the TM you are not having to resistance air resistance while you do have to outside.

At higher speeds the grade would need to be increased since resistance increases as you move faster (a cube function).

djäveln wrote:...Grade is not as acuurate a term as percentage, but one assumes they are the same on the TM.

So a 12 percent grade is not an accurate representation of a 12 percent slope? How so?

Do explain a bit more.

I suppose it is but when you say percent, the measuring is self-evident. If you say grade, is it percentage or degree of angle? They\'re different.

Ex:

There was a Metro accident last year in DC where a train rolled backwards down a \"hill\" and smashed into stationary train in a station. Articles in the Post had diagrams that alternately showed the hills gradient in percentages and angle degrees, so there\'s confusion in general about this.

So let's say I run all of my training runs around 7:15 - 7:30 on a treadmil...what incline would be suffice?

For highways, roads, trails, railroads, and so forth that are designed (as opposed to just trails that came into existence by people using animal trails, old mule trails, and such) the inclines and descents are designed using percent. It originates from railway engineering (or even older, from the Romans with their aquaducts).

Grade is expressed in percent (amount of vertical change in some horizontal distance, that ratio being multiplied by 100 to become a percent).

A two foot rise in 100 feet is a +2.00 percent grade ((2/100)*100).

A two foot decline in 100 feet is a -2.00 percent grade.

A 100 percent grade is a 45 degree angle (100 feet up [or down] in 100 feet horizontal).

A very steep slope (running or vehicles) is 12-15 percent.

Whenever people decide to use both grades, slopes, gradients, and angles the confusion starts. The mind almost always thinks of a 100 percent grade as vertical.

treadmiler wrote:

Is this the same as the angle?

If the angle is small and measured in radians, it is essentially the same. You probably don't measure your angles in radians though.

luv2run wrote:

At higher speeds the grade would need to be increased since resistance increases as you move faster (a cube function).

Squared.