Treadmill Or Outside Walking - Which Is Better?
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Is it better to walk indoors on the treadmill, outside on a track, sidewalk, or path? The workouts are similar, but have some basic differences. Calories on the Treadmill vs. Outside Walking Using a motorized treadmill with no incline, you may burn fewer calories per mile than you do outdoors. The moving tread does some of the work for you, and you have no wind resistance. According to research, you can overcome these by adding a slight incline, as little as 1%. Holding onto the handrails will reduce calories burned further, and wreck your walking posture. It is best to train yourself to walk a speed you can sustain without holding onto the handrails. Work More Muscles Walking Outside Walking outside has its biggest advantage in challenging your balance and stability with all of the small obstacles, dodges, starts and stops. This will give you an advantage for distance walking as well as overall health as we age -- maintaining our stabilizing muscles. Here is what you face walking outside vs. on a treadmill: Distance Training Outdoors vs. Treadmill I recommend doing outside long distance mileage when training for a 10K, half marathon or marathon, rather than doing it all on the treadmill. Go ahead and use the treadmill for your within-week workouts of 30-60 minutes and to work on your walking posture and form. But for your long, slow distance mileage, do it outdoors. On a longer distance event, your muscles will begin to tire and you will need to remind yourself often of good walking form. You end up with aches in odd places as you "recruit" different muscles when your usual walking muscles tire. Outdoors training is more likely to be using those muscles for balance, stability, ups and downs than the smooth ride of the treadmill. You will end up with fewer aches after your long distance events if you have been doing your long slow distance training outdoors. Incline on the Treadmill -- All Uphill, No Downhill Treadmills can be useful for adding incline if you are in an area without hills, but I'll bet you can work some stairs into your workout if you look for them to help build the uphill and downhill muscles. This is the big problem with treadmills -- there is no downhill! You use different muscles to go downhill, and I never see a loop walking course where you only go uphill. You need to train those downhill muscles as well. Advantages of Treadmill vs. Outside Walking Using a treadmill for your regular workouts is a great way to burn calories and give basic training to your walking muscles and practice your walking form. Walking Indoors But Not on a Treadmill Other options for indoors walking include mall walking, indoors tracks, walking the halls and stairs, and marching in place. |
