Treadmill Effects- Does Using the Incline on the Treadmill Damage the Knees? Benefits of Incline Training Before getting all Negative you should keep in mind that there are reasons treadmills come programmed with incline settings. Running at an incline increases the effort of your leg muscles significantly, working your glutes, quads and calves harder and burning more calories as a result. Incline running can also help prevent shin splints and increase your endurance more than running on level ground. Injuries from Treadmills Running has a low impact on your muscles, but the repetitive nature of the exercise and the pounding effect as your foot makes contact with the flat surface adds up over time, causing strained ligaments and painful joints. The moving rubber treadmill surface at a zero-percent incline simulates downhill running, which is very hard on the knees. Running at a slight incline of about 1 or 2 percent is best to avoid the unnatural movement patterns caused by running on a level setting, but be careful about cranking the incline up too high. Knees and Incline Training The Ohio State University Medical Center cautions that repetitive exercise at a sharp incline, such as hill running, can result in patellofemoral stress syndrome -- a painful condition you might refer to as runners knee. Sharp incline running allows less movement in your ankle joints, meaning your knees have to pick up the slack and take on added impact. As these things go, less movement usually translates to less comfort. No treadmill for knees- Human knees are built to walk and run on natural terrains, which is why, using a treadmill can have bad effects in the long run, warns Dr Rajeev K Sharma. Knee is one of the most complicated joint of the body which bears almost all its weight and is most susceptible to injury and arthritis. An optimum exercise could help keep your knees in good health but at the same time too much of it can be harmful for its ligaments and cartilage. It may cause wear and tear. Running itself is considered as high impact activity (activities which put extra pressure on your knees) for your knees, but when it is done on treadmill, it becomes even more vigorous. This explains a little why running on a treadmill for long periods can damage your knee. Running on a treadmill is sort of alien to your intricate knees, innately designed to walk or run on the earth. So when you run on a treadmill, and try to match the speed of the machine, the point contact pressure tends to remain on a very limited area of the knee which is repeated every few seconds. On the other hand, when you are run on a track or on grass, apart from changing your position constantly you also do not try to match the speed of a machine.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 12:55:54 +0000
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