The American Club Magazine Feb - Mar - Apr | 2020

FEATURE

GIVES YOU A BETTER BANG FOR YOUR BUCK By Michael Cheah

A treadmill can be great, but it can’t fully mimic real life. There are benefits to running outside; whether it’s getting vitamin D from the sun (before 8:00 a.m. and after 4:00 p.m.), breathing in fresh air and receiving positive chi from the trees, running outdoors delivers a bigger positive energy boost resulting in less tension, anger and depression. Runners who run outside burn about 3 to 7 more calories per minute. It is a more natural gait cycle as opposed to a treadmill. Runners were, on average, 2.6% less efficient when focusing on their form and 4.2% less efficient when focusing on their breathing than when focusing on the scenery. When runners run on a treadmill, it feels as though they are running faster then they actually are. Pace on the treadmill does not correlate to pace on the road. It is easy to“set it and forget it”. Running on a treadmill means it’s harder for runners to properly find and maintain a pace on their own, and as a consequence, treadmill runners stunt the development of their internal effort and pacing instincts. In addition, certain muscles will become weak and deconditioned, which sets

treadmill runners up for injury when they do get back to running outside. Or worse, treadmill runners can suffer an injury from overworking a muscle or bone in the same predictable pattern. Some of the soft tissue conditioning or “hardening” that occurs with road running does not occur with treadmill running because the plate or base on the treadmill "gives" more than road surfaces. Running biomechanics will also be affected on a treadmill – you may run with a flatter foot and a shorter stride length, and lean forward more. When running on the treadmill there are no weather conditions to acclimatize to or varied running surfaces to deal with. Running off road will strengthen and condition the ankles. The American Club Gym has two new units of non- motorized treadmill by Technogym (Skillmill) that works well to ensure running techniques do not get compromised. It is designed for runners to control their strides and improve on leg strength. Do check them out in the Gym and give it a try!

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