If you are like me, you love the sound of your feet pounding the pavement. Sadly, I've been stuck running like a hamster lately. I used to despise running on a treadmill. At one point, I could run two hours on winding foot paths until my knees hurt and still crave for more, and just run 5 minutes maximum on a treadmill. And after 300 hundred seconds--golly, that's the 5 minute equivalent--I'd get down and look around to wonder why nobody is applauding my valiant run. Running on a treadmill gives me the creeps, the same kind I get when I need to have a dentist work on my once forsaken molar.
Things changed after an article I read (from quick and dirty tips get fit guy) about the efficacy of mixing resistance with cardio workouts to lose weight.
A 2008 study at the University of California asked this very question, and had one group do cardio, another group do resistance training, and a final group do a concurrent training workout in which they ran for 30-60 seconds after completing each weight lifting set.
Even though each group did the same amount of work, the combination group experienced the following:
- a 35% greater improvement in lower body strength,
- a 53% greater improvement in lower body endurance,
- a 28% greater improvement in lower body flexibility,
- a 144 % greater improvement in upper body flexibility,
- an 82% greater improvement in muscle gains, and
- a 991 % greater loss in fat mass!
Did you see that? That was a whopping nine-hundred-ninety-one percent! That's close to ten times more effective loss in fat mass. I'm not really trying to lose weight. I just like running. But if I could lose the extra tub of fat around my waist--like the love handles that nobody loves or the flab in front providing the unnecessary aerodynamics--I ask why not? And while the same article provided cardio and resistance workouts that you could do in the comfort of your home, I decided to follow the routines he provided for the gym. I am also following a tip from another episode about how to get the best results from a treadmill, never having an incline lower than 2.5%. The idea behind this is the body is already very used to running. It is trying to be optimally. Trying to use as little energy as possible. But getting an incline in there makes it uncomfortable. We don't run on inclined gradients very often.
The result is increased resistance taking the bore out of the treadmill. So treadmill running could be a satisfying workout after all. Some of the other benefits a runner might get from running like a hamster that he won't get running outdoors might include:
- You can catch the evening news, while on a treadmill. This means you can do two things at the same time. If you had a home machine, you could also choose to use this time to watch other things that you need for your day job. Like presentations, documentaries or other things of the sort.
- You don't have to worry about the weather.
- You can work on your speed.
- You can work on your form.