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Treadmill or Elliptical?

Tuesday, 20 January 2015 00:10

By Dan Empfield (slowtwitch.com)

Treadmills are much more popular than elliptical machines for Slowtwitchers, and why wouldn't they be? Triathletes run, bike and swim. When they need to mimic cycling while not cycling they most often choose stationary trainers. Then they want to mimic running they choose treadmills. Makes sense.

Half of all Slowtwitchers either own a treadmill or are planning to get one. Almost no Slowtwitchers intend to buy an elliptical and very few have them now. But there is a case for an elliptical machine, especially if your ambition for run training exceeds your body's capacity to maintain such training without soreness and injury.

If you want to run a lot of miles – the annual 100/100 Challenge is ongoing right now, with north of 500 Slowtwitchers officially taking part – that's a lot of running. It's certain that many or most participants will end up with sore legs if not some niggling pain and injuries. How do you keep up your running, or at least your run fitness, while minimizing the strain that's causing the injury?  ...

It's true the treadmill may provide a run that generates less impact than running outside. Still, it's a very run-specific activity and everything I've read affirms that treadmills parallel road running biomechanically and in effort expended. Treadmill running is very analogous to road running.

An elliptical machine is not directly run specific. In my own experience and opinion it gets more run specific as the machine's stride length increases. Stride length on an elliptical is kind of like crank length on a bike: you can opt for a tighter or more expansive orbit around a fulcrum, but that orbit is fixed. In running this is not the case. READ MORE