Why do people do cardio at a gym?

amkelley wrote:

I don't know about all of them, but I suspect many of the women are on treadmills because they are terrified to go outdoors. They have been told all their lives that any male encountered in an unsupervised environment is a rapist and they've bought on to it. Sad.

2/10

Clearly you are an ignorant male or very undesirable female. Run with a halfway attractive female (many female runners are) for even an hour in a populated area and you will witness catcalls. What they go through is nothing like what a guy goes through when he's out running.

It was easy for me to be naïve in my small folksy community, too, until a random guy assaulted and killed a random girl on the trail where I run a few years ago.

Running for a woman is not as convenient as you would like to pretend.

I don't go to a gym but I usually run on a t-mill for a controlled environment. I consistently find I have a weakness to heat and humidity so acclimation to heat is something I can get indoors.

Also, I don't have to worry about packs of wild dogs out on the streets.

Because I work outside, am middle aged, ran outside and competed in the cold for 30 years and I don't feel like doing it anymore.

Walk 10% of my life in my shoes and you'll never want to go out again creampuff.

I used to be like that. Would run outside during the winter everyday after work. I'd run by gyms and think the same thing. Then I changed my mind this past winter for a handful of reasons:

1) Ice. I've fallen pretty bad on ice a couple times while preparing for spring races and lost a week each time to recover from bruised knee caps, hips, etc.

2) Snow. I usually run around 6:30 pace and would rather do that on a treadmill than 8:30 pace in 12ins of snow.

3) Frozen extremities. I got chilblains for the first time this winter and my hands were sore and swollen for over a month

4) It's dark out. Even with my reflective gear, I've still been nearly hit by many cars and actually hit by one a few years go.

5) I don't race in the winter. Why train in the cold when I'll be racing in warm weather.

6) Workouts. It's a lot easier to do hard workouts when you don't have to worry about cars, ice, snow, lighting, etc.

I joined a gym for the first time this winter and I don't regret it. I feel like my training is going much better than if I hadn't joined.

Indoor track at a local university F. T. W. To hell with a treadmill, though I will occasionally run on mine at home in my nice finished basement. It really is very nice to be able to change from work clothes into shorts and shoes and be on my own treadmill within reach of anything I need, in just seconds. But the college girl eye candy prancing around the indoor track is where I'll gravitate more often then not. I've been going there whenever it's below just 30 degrees or so. I used to be the aforementioned winter weather warrior every day in the dark and snow after work, and think the same thing as I ran by gyms. Not anymore, I relish in my indoor options now and my training is going much better because of it. *deuces* dumb@ss

Do you really think that only "desirable" women get sexually assaulted?

I have been female all my life. I have now reached an age where I am largely invisible to men, but I ran outdoors, almost daily and almost always alone, all through my 20s and 30s, in several different cities. I certainly did attract lots of catcalls and otherwise ungentlemanly comments, but words are harmless.

Of course bad things sometimes happen to women out in the world. Bad things sometimes happen to men, too. All my life people have been telling me that my role in society is to be a victim. I refuse to buy into that. You can spend your life hiding under the couch or in a gym, or you can get out in the world. I've chosen the latter.

I'm in the gym 5-6 days per week. On alternate days, I ALWAYS warm up on the treadmill for 5-7 minutes to get my heart rate up, then I go hit the weights. On the other days, I alternate between cardio & core stuff. usually 7 minutes cardio, then 7 minutes core, and repeat a few times. I like this workout and it works for me.

This thread is dumb. That is all.

I have had surgery on both knees. So running on hard surfaces is out. My running days are over. So I can only do non-impact cardio like the elliptical.

IGoToTheGym wrote:

I go to the gym a few times a week.

WITHOUT FAIL:

Everyone on the treadmills, 'bikes' and stair climber things is fat. And EVERY woman 'lifting' has something like 30 pounds on a leg machine, when they themselves weigh at least 30 pounds or more than they should. (Don't want to build muscle, you see, would make them look fat.)

I've gone for years, and this is consistent. The only things I do at the gym are things I can't do when not at the gym. I don't run, I don't ride anything, I don't go up fake stairs, I don't do sideways crap because I don't play basketball. It's not rocket science. But, slow cardio keeps you fat.

And lifting puny weights does nothing.

you obviously live in a crappy, suburban place, not a city.

there's generally a fair amount of fit and attractive people at the gym in real cities

Do you really care about the character of somebody on a treadmill? I don't.

Granted, this discussion has been informative about why a lot of people choose to use them, and i am glad they have that option at their disposal.

Plenty of things in this world piss me off. But the fact that some folks run on treadmills isn't one of them.

And furthermore, I put in the earbuds and workout or run specifically to get away from those things that do piss me off, not to go looking for new ones.

Gym rat wrote:

I use the gym treadmill frequently because my gym offers free babysitting and I have 3 young children. I can leave them in babysitting and get a solid workout in without having to find someone to watch my kids just because I want to run 5 miles.

That and my gym has lots of eye candy.

+1

You're finding a way to get it done.

+1

Good rebuttal!

Childcare

amkelley wrote:

I just don't get people pounding away on a treadmill when they could go run on a nice bike/pedestrian path along a creek just a block away (seriously).

Do they have TVs along the trail I can watch? If I can watch a basketball game and get a 2 hour run in at the same time, I have more time to do other things.

This post is just a thinly disguised boast by the OP.

Really tough prople dont have to tell you they are tough.

Why do people do cardio at the gym? Because they are freskin awesome. They arent sitting on the couch at home. They aren't ruining their liver at a bar. They aren't spending their retirement at a casino.

They are being physically active in the best way they know how. Many of them have medical conditions that prevent them from training outside or from getting too far from emergency help. But they are doing what they can.

And they make as much money with their running as you do.

Livetobe100 wrote:

This post is just a thinly disguised boast by the OP.

Really tough prople dont have to tell you they are tough.

Why do people do cardio at the gym? Because they are freskin awesome. They arent sitting on the couch at home. They aren't ruining their liver at a bar. They aren't spending their retirement at a casino.

They are being physically active in the best way they know how. Many of them have medical conditions that prevent them from training outside or from getting too far from emergency help. But they are doing what they can.

And they make as much money with their running as you do.

Bro if you read the whole thread you will see that I admitted I was being too prideful and prejudice and need to humble myself.

I didn't mean to offend anyone here, you make good points. As long as someone is bettering themselves that is all that matters, not who is tougher or not.

Why would anyone rip on anyone else who is making the effort to work out and improve themselves? Whether someone is training for the Olympics or just trying to keep their weight and cholesterol down, they are doing something positive with their time.

While running competively back in my 20's, I would run outside without fail. I got very tough mentally and injuries on a few occasions from the ice and snow. Now that I'm older and my body is beat up from all the miles and hard interval sessions, I'm lucky if I can do 3-4 miles a few days a week. The other days, I'll hit the gym to get in some cross training on a bike or elliptical.

There are times to be tough, and times to be smart and do,what's right for your body. Maturity is being able to recognize the difference.

After 1980 everyone became a wuss, stop running 100+ miles weeks, and has fled to hitting the treadmill, gym, and all that BS... Meanwhile there are a bunch of dudes in Kenya running twice a day on dirt, full of insects trying to give you malaria, all while trying not to get eaten by a hyena..... Think of that next time you don't want to step out the door with your North face jacket and starbucks grande vanilla BS. Thanks, you got me stoked up for my second run now.