Okay, so who knew treadmills could be trained assassins?! I just finished my workout a little while ago. For some crazy reason, I got the notion in my head that I could get over-exuberant today and pushed myself. Higher speed than I've ever used... guess what? My legs don't GO that fast... the manufacture of that torture device should be ashamed. Before I decided to try to reach the slow-down button, I felt my ankle twist. AGAIN. It's an old football injury from when I was... a lot younger. Long story. Anyhow, it's wrapped now and I'm scolding myself. Feel free to shake your collected fingers at me and give me a good scolding. Torture I tell you! Anyone else use that murderous machine? If so, how do you find a happy medium between reaping the benefits and needing a chiropractor?
We have a Gazelle glider that we use at home, and also use the treadmill walker at the fitness center. I like the Gazelle because it does not stress my knees like walking does. Once I am standing on the Gazelle, then I can walk (actually more like skiing) , but I don't have to bend my knees and pick up my leg and feet like you have to do on a treadmill. I only use the tread mill on days when my knee is being cooperative, and I don't go as fast as i used to be able to walk. I start slow and as I am more comfortable, then I pick up the pace a few notches until I get to a walking speed that I can do comfortably. On days when my knee is too stiff to walk, then I do all of the exercises in the swimming pool. I can walk in the water and not put so much stress on my knees. I also do my knee bends in the water, and that is getting more doable for me now, too. At first, I could barely move up and down because my knee hurt so much; but now I do at least two sets of 50 of the deep knee bends in about 3 feet of water. I also do other leg exercises in the water, and i am starting to feel the muscles getting stronger. I have just started using the water-weights, which are actually floats, and am strengthening my arms by pushing the floats inder water and back up slowly. I do all of this intermixed with swimming, so pretty much all of my muscles get a workout this way.
Gazelle... I'll have to check into that. Hope it doesn't cost as much as that killer treadmill did. The only concern is the arm thingies... it's like cross-country poles, yes? The only problem I have (when the injured ankle is behaving) is my shoulders, and I'm thinking something like that requiring constant arm movement might irritate the shoulders... is that right? They even start in when I'm holding the regular treadmill handles.
Wow! Deadly machine! That was an over-kill...joy. Aren't treadmills custom made to be friendly, and easy on the younger-than-over-50s? I think new innovations ought to have some kind of app devise that can detect age limit... Keep-out-of-reach-of... Or have installed pre-program app that can defy stunt attempts... at all cost. Those ones would be quite "offensive, hateful and racist", wouldn't they? Seriously, how's your ankle, by the way? I hope you're feeling better now. I think I would have dared the same devil-run with a treadmill.
I think in order for them to be friendly, the human in charge has to realize their limitations, @Avigail David Hehehe Keep out of reach of people who forget that if they go too fast, they end up with injuries. Yes. Funny stuff there! But yes, if that would be programmed in there to stop the over-zealous, you can be pretty sure that someone would soon be squawking about being hateful and age-discriminating. Such is the way our planet has deteriorated. My ankle throbs less when I have it wrapped, so I'm kind of scared to unwrap it. I assume it will ache for 4 or 5 days and then start lessening. Maybe I should go to the kiddie park and ride the spring-powered horsies for exercise.
The Gazelle does have swinging arm movement, but I think that you could maybe just hold on to the crossbar if the hadle bar bothered your shoulders. It is actually not a lot of shoulder motion, unless you were taking really long strides, which I do not do, and is not necessary. I found mine on Craigslist used for $25 delivered, and it works fine for me. Ina got hers brand new, and she said hers has hydraulics so you can set the amount of work needed to walk; but mine is the basic model and just swings free. I have a lot of trouble with balance, and the Gazelle helps because I do hang on with my arms and hands and that helps me to balance. If you have any knee issues at all, the Gazelle is great because there is no lifting and bending knees, just walk/gliding. It also fold up when you need to get it out of the way. We never use the computer room for anything most of the time, so we have the Gazelle in there. Hopefully, it keeps the Dell computer some company...... Here is a picture of one, you can see there is not excessive arm movement.
There are a lot of different muscles that can be exercised on a gazelle. By changing your hand positions, or your foot positions, you can exercise different muscle groups. You can get on the gazelle backwards, and bring another range of muscles into play. You can go fast, slow or somewhere in between. If you extend one leg at a time, and hold it, you'll exercise other muscles. By simply walking on it slowly, you can limber your legs up, which is usually how I begin and end my time on a gazelle. I call it warming up and cooling down. Unless you really work at it, the gazelle doesn't cause stress.
Thanks, @Yvonne Smith . Knowing me I'd try those long strides and do my first split since high school. Whoa, $25 was quite a bargain! That miserable treadmill was around $800 and I've wanted to take a hammer to the computer part of it more than once. Fortunately I have no knee issues, no. The only serious chronic pain issues (again, except for that football injury and other specific injuries at times) I have are the shoulders and that's from all the writing I do for my work... more breaks during the day would probably be wise. I check the forum when I'm breaking, but... well that doesn't help me get away from the computer to stretch the muscles. If my knees ever do hurt, it's from something I did to make that happen. Is this the same thing that someone had been talking about in another thread months ago?! Maybe Ina? I intended to look it up at the time and totally forget.
Thank you, @Ken Anderson . It sure does look like something I'd enjoy doing. Do you have any way to determine things like calories burned, carbs burned, and distance covered like treadmills do? It wouldn't *matter* to me either way, but that's data I've been keeping track of.
You might want to look into a fitness tracker, @Mari North . I have a little Fitbug Orb that clips to my bra (or wherever), and it keeps track of all of the steps I take every day. Then I can add other activities , like swimming, or things that are listed as an activity but different from walking. The app for the Fitbug also has a place to add your food intake, and then calculates how many calories you have burned for the day. The Fitbug Orb is about $18 on Amazon. I love it ! It is simple to use, but tells me everything that I need to know. It encourages me to want to "get my steps in" and I proudly announce to Bobby every day how well I did (or sometimes, didn't). It will also monitor sleeping; but I don't bother with that part.
I haven't used a treadmill in years, but I enjoyed them when I did, although I've always preferred getting my exercise outdoors. I'm not familiar with the gazelle, although I have heard of them. If I had the money, I'd invest in the Bowflex Treadclimber. For some reason, it seems to be the one that I'd like best. I can't use standard bikes or recumbent ones, although I did try out a hybrid that worked for me. I've seen a few commercials lately depicting treadmill accidents/injuries, so apparently you're not alone @Mari North. Hope your ankle heals soon.