If you take some time to consider the intensiveness of the workout alone, research indicates that running or walking outdoors results in a slightly better workout than doing it on a treadmill. But that doesn’t mean you should toss your treadmill. With a little cleverness, you can even the score.
One factor that makes outdoor jogging or running a better workout is wind resistance. Another reason has to do with biomechanics. Outdoor running requires pushing off against the ground, while treadmill running or jogging is a more airborne activity, as the ground is moving beneath the runner. If you use the correct, upright form and ascend the elevation of the treadmill to 1% to adjust for the lack of wind and ground resistance. A personal trainer or fitness specialist with the proper accreditations and experience will be sure that you are training on the proper surface.
Monitoring your heart rate can also provide critical information about how to compensate for the differences between the surfaces. Monitor your heart rate during outdoor and treadmill workouts. If there’s a difference, you can make up for the loss. Quicken the speed or elevation on the treadmill to compensate for example.
Treadmills do provide one technological training advantage that nature can’t match. Interval training, a method that runners count on to increase their speed, may be more challenging on a treadmill than on the sidewalk.
Different running surfaces will provide different impacts involved and the stresses which find their way up to your joints. Grass, woodland trails, earth, cinders, man-made track and are the best training surfaces for most runners followed by the treadmill. But the treadmill is a better surface than asphalt, sand, concrete and snow. Obviously, the demands placed on your body if running on a beach or a snowy hill or street are further factors to consider before preparing for your next run!
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