Ask a Trainer
Two elite 24 Hour Fitness Trainers tackle your most burning in-the-gym questions.
Is running on the treadmill the same as running outside? It feels easier to me. Should I be running longer on the treadmill than I normally do outside, just to get in the same workout?
-- Tom, Kansas City, Missouri
If you’re looking just to burn calories, being on the treadmill is a safer workout, because a treadmill is a cushioned surface, so your joints are spared some impact. You do burn a lot more calories outside, because you have to propel yourself—on the treadmill, the floor is moving underneath you; it’s moving for you—but if you run outside every day, you’re more likely to get injured. And when you’re injured and can’t run, you can’t burn any calories. So I would say it’s a wash between the two.
I don’t know about thaaat [in Texas drawl]. I’ve seen some people go off the back of a treadmill and get all kinds of beat up. But in terms of the actual workout you get, you definitely don’t work as hard running on a treadmill as you do when you run outside. The terrain isn’t challenging, there’s no headwind—it’s just easier. To compensate for that, I’d raise the incline level on the treadmill to level 1 or 2 when you’re substituting a treadmill workout for an outdoor run.
And if you’re training for a race like a marathon, you should get outside and train on the terrain you’re going to be running on. There is no substitute for that.
You know what I’d say if you were my client? “What do you like doing most?” If you hate running outside or if you’re afraid of dogs or if you don’t like the heat—in Texas, the street isn’t air-conditioned—you’re not going to do it. And the point is to do it. Do what you like to do and will do most often. Don’t worry about equivalencies. Just worry about getting it in.
Meet the Experts
Two trainers, both with impeccable credentials but very different styles.
Brandy Bachmeyer, 28, a former Olympic weightlifter, is a rare amalgam of brains, brawn, and perkiness. Sort of like a cross between MacGyver and a local TV weatherperson. In a good way. An elite trainer at San Ramon Supersport Club in California, Brandy regularly puts in 12-hour days, sometimes joining them as they train for half-marathons—even surveying the contents of their sub-Zeros.
Scott Nunes, a trainer at the 24 Hour Fitness in Escondido, California knows firsthand that getting fit doesn’t just happen. “I used to be a bona fide couch potato,” Nunes avows. When Nunes was in his mid 20s, he had back surgery, developed arthritis, and found himself weighing in at 260 pounds: “When my one-and-a-half-year-old son raced me to the top of the stairs and beat me, I started doing pushups and sit ups that day,” he recalls. Nunes, 37, got in great shape, which helped him raise his son, who’s now 14.
COMBINED WISDOM Weather permitting, switch it up: Run on the treadmill some days, outdoors on others. Stuck inside due to heat or cold (or scary neighborhood dogs)? Inch up the incline, and vary your program on the treadmill.
