How to safely use a treadmill (it’s not as easy as you think)
Six rules for gym users from an expert
It’s a pretty straightforward piece of equipment and you’ve been walking and running for how many years now? How difficult can it be to try a treadmill for the first time?
According to one study, 66 per cent of gym injuries involve treadmills. The tragic death of Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey and husband of Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, is the exclamation point at the end of this warning.
So if you’re on holiday, as Goldberg was, and get a hankering to jump on the treadmill, or you’re a novice starting an exercise programme, here are some great tips on how to use the treadmill safely. They come from exercise physiologist Mike Bracko of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, who wrote the American College of Sports Medicine’s guide on treadmills. (The guide covers home treadmills but the lessons apply in the gym as well.)
1. No phones! "You’ve got to [set] your priorities. If it’s exercise, it’s exercise," Bracko said. Many people don’t realise at first that the running or walking gait you use on a treadmill is different from the one you use in real life. Until you’re accustomed to that, and even once you are, looking at your phone is a major distraction that can cause you to trip.
"If you trip, you’re going to go down and it’s not going to be pretty," Bracko said.