Treadmill causing injury?

Bump.

Research seems to indicate there aren't any real biomechanical differences compared with overground running. The incline myth has been around for awhile. Bottom line on that one is that the lack of wind resistance is a very minor factor when running under 7:00/mile, but is almost certainly subsumed by poor calibration and the effect of running in a small cloud of your own humidity in a hot gym.

http://www.runnersworld.com/treadmills/biomechanics-expert-debunks-treadmill-running-myths

I always run with the treadmill on a minimum of 1 on the incline. Any lower and I feel like im free falling. Cant answer your question in regard to injury though, apart from subjective banter.

I would suggest going up and down on the incline just as you would go up and down hills on a normal run. Be sure and do some dynamic warm ups before starting. Your gait should be the same inside or outside. Try running in the middle of the belt compared to the front of it.

If you are doing 8 miles I would break it up and with a stop or two to flex the tendons.

ResearchBased wrote:

Research seems to indicate there aren't any real biomechanical differences compared with overground running.

That's not the conclusion Kerrigan presents in the paper she refers to. In fact, I think she misrepresents the results when she states its significance.

"RESULTS: ... Statistically significant differences in knee kinematics,the peak values of GRF, joint moment, and joint power trajectories were identified."

and

"SIGNIFICANCE: Treadmill-based analysis of running mechanics can be generalized to overground running mechanics, provided the treadmill surface is sufficiently stiff and belt speed is adequately regulated"

For the sentence in bold we are not told how "sufficiently stiff" is defined in the abstract. Treadmills are generally bouncy as hell although I have heard that Lieberman's is zero yield. Perhaps hers was the same.

So for the OP, yes biomechanics are different and it's quite possible this has contributed to an overuse injury.

Oh, I forgot to mention that this comment is quite revealing.

"We had to do a study on that to convince the National Institutes of Health to fund some of our other work"

i.e. If she could show that treadmill running was the same then she could get further funding. This is not a situation conducive to objective reasoning.

UK Limey runner wrote:

i.e. If she could show that treadmill running was the same then she could get further funding. This is not a situation conducive to objective reasoning.

You don't know much about funding and "science".

ex-scientist wrote:

You don't know much about funding and "science".

Incorrect.

you know whats good for foot pain? if you lick my butthole