incline on treadmill ---> how much elevation gain?

It's quite simple. Use math: 1.5% represents 15m elevation in 1km (1.5% out of 1000m). Therefore 1.5% incline in the mile is 15x 1.609= 24.135m which is around 79ft.

I don't think it's that simple. On a treadmill you are not actually increasing your overall potential energy when you run on an incline, and you are when you run up a hill. However, most of the extra energy of running up a hill may go into having to move your legs up and down more, rather than increasing your overall potential energy. It's hard to say.

Yeah.....Its that simple.

Actually, you need an incline just to simulate running on level ground. This is do to the treadmill motor doing some of the running for you.

No, it's because of a lack of wind resistance. The motor does nothing for you.

Don't start that argument again. Doesn't the treadmill actually tell you elevation gained during the workout. The one I run on at the gym does tell me (although I rarely take note of it).

oftenrunning52 wrote:

Don't start that argument again. Doesn't the treadmill actually tell you elevation gained during the workout. The one I run on at the gym does tell me (although I rarely take note of it).

i run on treadmills quite a bit and have bever used one that tells this. that being said, it would be a great thing to add/have. at the ymca where i run, they have a treading "class" and a picture of mt. everest with the names of those in the class put on the pic showing how high they have run.

not to start the "do you need to raise the incline" argument again since there were 2 recent threads on this, all i will add is that there is no agreement on this point.

The treadmills in our college's gym have the "net rise" readout. I think they're StarTrac's. My Bodyguard at home doesn't, neither do the Pacemasters, True's, and Cybex units I've run on.

Net elevation is as simple as %elevation times distance. If you run one mile (5280 feet) at 10%, that's 528 vertical feet. Although your body hasn't added PE in the classic sense of running up a hill, you have done an equivalent amount of work. The same is true if the treadmill has a decline (your body hasn't lost PE, but you have done less work).

JimFiore wrote:

The treadmills in our college's gym have the "net rise" readout. I think they're StarTrac's. My Bodyguard at home doesn't, neither do the Pacemasters, True's, and Cybex units I've run on.

that explains it as i use a pacemaster. neat function to have, though i doubt i would use it as i do not raise the incline (running up hill is hard).

The treadmills at my gym are also Star Trac. My ignorance I suppose. I figured most treadmills came with that function.

JimFiore wrote:

Although your body hasn't added PE in the classic sense of running up a hill, you have done an equivalent amount of work.

What's the extra amount of work you've done on the treadmill that has made up for the fact that you didn't increase your PE?

The work done is not equivalent.

duker, are you implying that no extra work is done when the treadmill is at an incline? If that is the case, then logically you must not receive any benefit from it set to a decline (in which case I must assume that you always place a few cinder blocks under the back end of your treadmill ;-). Of course there's extra work. Who says you have to increase PE for there to be work (again, by your body, not via classical physics)? Here's a little thought experiment: Suppose you are running up a mile long hill that's at a 10% grade at about 10 min pace. That's almost a 530 foot rise in 10 mins, a good bit of extra work. Now, suppose the second time you're running up, this entire hill slowly sinks into a city-sized mass of quicksand at the rate of about 53 feet per minute. Given the huge mass involved, there won't be direct measurable interaction between you running and the hill sinking (i.e., your footplants will add/subtract an infintesimal force to the sinking hill). At the end of 10 mins the hill will have sunk about 530 feet leaving you in exactly the same vertical position, and thus, no net PE gain. Are you saying this would feel no different than running at 10 min pace over flat land?

You seem to be implying the same argument as those who say running on a treadmill is easy because the belt "moves under you". No, you still have to accelerate your body to stay in the same spot relative to the room. With an incline, we're just looking at a vector so many degrees above horizontal, so now you need to react against a vertical as well as horizontal component. You could take this to the extreme and imagine someone climbing up a ladder while the ladder is slowly lowered over the side of a building. If the vertical velocities match, the climber does not change PE, but they certainly are doing work! Look at it this way: relative to the bottom of the ladder, they've increased PE by equal amounts either way.

I didn't say you aren't doing extra work when the treadmill is inclined. I said the extra work you do on an inclined treadmill is not equivalent to the extra work you do when actually climbing a hill.

When you run a mile on a treadmill with a 1% incline and when you run a mile up a hill with a 1% incline, everything is identical. Except that when you actually run up the hill you are 52 feet higher in the end than when you started. That is extra work that you must have done. There's no getting around that.

Go to the airport, pick up two heavy suitcases, and walk "up" 100 steps of the down escalator so that you stay in the same place. Now carry those two suitcases up 100 real steps. I think you'll feel the difference.

I purchased a great training log at www.intensesport.com that has a treadmill conversion chart. It tells what various speeds and inclines on the treadmill are equivelant to running outside.

Except the belt on the uphill escalator is going up - and so it is lifting you up. If you just stand there you will go up.

It goes opposite on a treadmill - it goes down and hence you have to run up it. If you stood there you would fall off the back.

This is what we were looking for. Thanks everyone!

Ma. wrote:

It's quite simple. Use math: 1.5% represents 15m elevation in 1km (1.5% out of 1000m). Therefore 1.5% incline in the mile is 15x 1.609= 24.135m which is around 79ft.

dweezil wrote:

Except the belt on the uphill escalator is going up - and so it is lifting you up. If you just stand there you will go up.

I said the down escalator.

I'm really not sure you'd feel a difference in the escalator example, unless you were at the bottom of the escalator where the steps begin getting smaller.

You would still be lifting your foot (and therefor your whole body mass) the same height. And, in walking, one foot must be on the ground at all times, so there is no change in the horizontal distance either.

Dukerdog, go to the airport and try it out.