Five new kinds of treadmill, including one on wheels, and how to work out on them

Running on the treadmill may seem boring, but classes are popping up to try to spruce things up a bit. They involve a mix of interval training on a treadmill with strength training, and have grown in popularity in the US and Britain recently. In Hong Kong, a new indoor boot camp facility in Central, HIT45, began offering a 45-minute high-intensity class when it opened on Stanley Street in June.

What makes the HIT45 class extra tough is its unusual curved treadmill that generates its own electrical power through the user running on the belt. The power consumption of this environmentally friendly treadmill is said to be as low as 40 watts, compared to the 1,500 watts of a conventional treadmill.

Gravity is used to start, accelerate and decelerate the treadmill. Because of this, makers of the machine claims it uses more muscles and burns 30 per cent more calories than a typical treadmill. Also, its ergonomic design is said to put 80 per cent less pressure on the runner’s joints.

I can vouch that the GreenJog treadmill definitely works your heart and legs harder, having recently gone for a trial class at HIT45 led by celebrity trainer Carmela Mondello, who flew in from Los Angeles (where she leads a similar class at the home of treadmill workouts, Barry’s Bootcamp). You need to claw the ground to get the belt moving, which really works the hamstrings, calves and butt much harder. Fortunately the total time spent on the treadmill is not long – three- to four six-minute bouts that include a few 15-second sprints, some jogging and some walking.

When it comes to fitness equipment, trends come and go, but the treadmill has been a bread and butter machine of gyms since the 1960s. Its popularity – especially the fact that many people pay to run on a treadmill – is ironic, given the machine was created as a punishment device in 1818.

English civil engineer William Cubitt invented the “treadwheel” to reform convicts. Prisoners were forced to climb the spokes of a large paddle wheel to create energy to pump water or crush grain (hence, the name change to “treadmill”).