4 Ways To Get More Out Of Your Treadmill Workout: By A.C. Shilton for Mens Journal Treadmills are miserable machines. Theres no scenery or fresh air and time just crawls on them. But where theres misery, theres money to be made, and app designers and treadmill manufacturers are on it. Search the iTunes store for treadmill apps and youll find everything from motivation via zombie apocalypse, to famed Olympic runner Jeff Galloway speaking gentle encouragements in your ear. It turns out theres a scientific reason why our brains loathe the treadmill. Your brain is an extremely energy dependent organ, explains Art Markman, Ph.D., an University of Texas psychology professor. Markman studies goals and motivations, and is the author of Smart Change: Five Tools to Create New and Sustainable Habits in Yourself and Others.Your brain is three percent of your bodyweight yet it uses 20 to 25 percent of your energy supply. Because its so expensive to operate, it always wants to be doing something, he says. But the treadmill is its own special kind of hell because it doesnt quite let your brain wander at will. It takes just slightly too much vigilance to stay on it, so you cant disengage from your environment, says Markman, Which is why binging on Game of Thrones doesnt help with the distraction factor. You cant fully focus on the plot without worrying about cartwheeling headfirst into the treadmill beside you. Run To The Beat Of An App This, however, is why apps and tech-integrated treadmills are so ideal. Take for example, Beat Burn, a treadmill app that manipulates the speed of your playlist to match the intervals in your workout. Listening to music doesnt take the same kind of focus as watching a drama. Its the combo of music and coaching that keeps you motivated, says Chris Klug, who designed many of the workouts in the app. And its constantly changing, so you dont have to think about getting through 90 minutes. Theres a change about every minute and a half. Research supports Beat Burns efficacy. A 2006 paper published in the journal Ergonomics found that study participants ran faster when listening to loud, fast music. While thats not all that surprising, the participants didnt notice any difference in perceived effort between running quickly to music and running more slowly without music. Of course, music wont make that rat in a cage feeling go away. Its hard not to spend your treadmill time ruminating on when life got so sedentary that jogging in place somehow become necessary to keep from permanently melding with your office chair. For this distinct feeling of misery, theres, as the industry calls it, exergaming. The Exergames Kai Huang, the co-founder of Guitar Hero, thinks exergaming is the cure to the American epidemic of treadmills being used as clothing racks. Hes created the Goji Play, a system that turns any stationary cardio equipment into an interactive game console. For $ 99, users get two wireless controllers, an activity tracker, and software to download onto their Android and Apple tablets and phones. With the software, users can zoom through a snowboarding course, pedal through rush hour traffic, or compete in a jet-ski race. Zombies, Run! which motivates with the threat of undead stalkers, is another popular exergaming app. Through a long and winding narrative, youre pushed to run faster as the zombies gain ground. Its aimed at outdoor runners, but can be adapted for a treadmill. Run Around The World But gaming isnt the answer for all runners. Bit Gym, a popular fitness app developer, entered into the app market with an exergaming racecar offering, but has since pulled it. We found it wasnt what our users really wanted, says Jean-Michel Fournier, CEO of the company. Fournier is a longtime mountain biker and the former VP of technology at UnitedHealthcare. However, Bit Gyms research found that compared to a passive treadmill activity, like watching TV, treadmill runners engaged in an app or program worked 37 percent harder. Maybe more important, two-thirds of the subject said their workouts went faster, and afterward, that they felt fulfilled. Watching TV during your workout creates a disconnect between your mind and your body, says Fournier. This disconnection impacts your intensity and makes you burn fewer calories. Now, Bit Gym offers destination tours in 70 different locations. You can run through the streets of Chicago, jog past bikini-clad women on the beaches of Sydney, or explore trails in the Swiss Alps. Everything is filmed from the athletes point of view, and using interactive technology, the video goes as you go, explains Fournier. Bit Gym uses the camera on your smart phone or tablet to analyze how fast youre moving. If you slow to a walk, the video slows to reflect your change in pace. If you embark on speed work, the video progresses more rapidly. With a program like Bit Gym, you never forget youre working out, but you have something to look at besides the wall in front of you. Apps Enter The Treadmill These types of programs are so effective, that treadmill companies are looking to integrate the technology. An interactive experience -- integrating what Im seeing with my eyes and what my body is doing -- reliably creates engagement, says Mark Watterson, director of iFit at ICON Health
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 19:05:40 +0000