Treadmill Vs Outdoor Running (What is more effective)
Running on Treadmill is not same as running on outdoor surface, let’s compare –
Benefits of Running on an Outdoor Surface –
1) To begin with they are two different surfaces, treadmill surface is lot smoother and an outdoor service is a lot more uneven, when you are running on an uneven surface the stabilizing muscles of the lower body come a lot more into play to balance the body, when you step on a rock or step on a puddle or move your foot sideways the stabilizing muscles around your calf and knee come into play to balance the body which is not the case of a treadmill as its smooth surface.
2) The effort required to move your body forward on a treadmill is a lot lesser as you have a motorized belt running under your feet however that is not the case with outdoor running as you have to use a lot of hand and leg strength to propel or move the body the body forward, which makes running on an outdoor surface a lot more strenuous.
3) Running on an outdoor surface is less monotonous than running on treadmill, with outdoor running you can enjoy a different view every day, change your route which is not something you can do with treadmill.
Benefits of Running Treadmill –
1. Running on an outdoor surface especially roads is not safe, chances of meeting an accident on road are extremely high which is something that will never happen if you are running on treadmill, so safety is the first benefit of running on treadmill.
2. Running on an outdoor surface like road, pavement of any other concrete surface is not good for your joints especially knees and lower back, a good treadmill with shock absorbers can significantly reduce the pressure coming on your knees and lower back.
3. Treadmill is not time or weather dependent and you can pretty much run on the treadmill whenever you want to, you can run at 12 in the afternoon or 12 at night, weather its raining outdoors or too hot outdoors you can still run on treadmill in the comfort of your room.
So both outdoor running and treadmill running have their own set of pros and cons but from a health perspective make your sure that you run regularly (irrespective of the surface) as running provides tons of health benefits like weight loss, fat loss and enhanced cardio vascular endurance.
Raghav Pande is an India based Fitness Consultant
He is a Certified Fitness Trainer, Sports Nutritionist and the Winner of “You Tube Next Trainer”
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