Top 20 Excuses People Hold Onto the Treadmill
1. “I’ll lose my balance.”/“I’ll fall off!”
Some people who tell me they have “poor balance” have the tread going at 3.5 or 4 mph! Balancing — forcing your central nervous system to get into the act — should be part of exercise. Balancing adds burned calories to the equation. So slow down if you feel wobbly, stop using your arms as anchors, and get used to walking the way Nature designed your body to move.
When people talk about falling off the treadmill, you’d think they were talking about trying to stand on a log floating in water. The fear of falling off has no basis in the physical reality for the typical treadmill user. The treadmill does not attract people with nerve-control disorders. It attracts people who prefer to walk or jog for exercise.
I will see these same people doing all sorts of stepping and pivoting in an aerobics class. I will see them lunge-walking around the track. I will see them playing racquetball. These people do not have balance disorders. They have an unrealistic fear, or they simply do not understand how to walk correctly.
2. “It’s too difficult to let go.”
Slow down or lower the incline. When the tread is whizzing under your feet at 4 mph, and the incline is at 15 percent, of course it’s too difficult to let go. Remember when you first learned to ride a bike, inline skate or ski? You started out slowly on a flat course. Then you worked up from there. Don’t get ahead of yourself.
If you set a barbell up with weights and find it’s too heavy to lift, what do you do? You lower the amount of weight. The treadmill should be the same. If it’s too difficult, rather than cheat through your session, simply slow the speed or lower the incline.
3. “I’m new at this.”/“This is my very first time.”
And this is the best time to learn a good habit! Exercising correctly from the get-go will prevent you from forming hard-to-break habits later on.
4. “I’m old.”
The older you get, the more important proper walking mechanics and posture are. Being “old” is all the more reason why you absolutely must keep your hands off the rails and front bar. In fact, holding onto the treadmill mimics the act of using a walker!
If I had two clients — a 19-year-old and his grandmother — and only one was permitted to hold on, I’d have the 19-year-old holding on. Why? Because a 19-year-old body is less likely to be harmed by the disrupted posture and disjointed rhythm that holding on creates.
I once went to a rec center for some of my workouts. I kept seeing the same senior woman, clinging to the treadmill. But ironically, after she was done, she’d station herself in a corner and attempt to stand on one leg! She was able to sustain one-legged standing for several moments. Now, this obviously means she did not have any blaring balance disorders. She instead was afflicted with ignorance of proper walking mechanics.
At another gym was a 72-year-old man who’d don his leather gloves and cling fast to the front bar while walking on a fast 15 percent incline. This very same man would do a weight routine consisting of holding a 20-pound dumbbell in each hand and doing squats, and without teetering! A person with a balance disorder would not be able to do this. So why, then, did he hold onto the treadmill? Again, it was ignorance.
His legs were conditioned from the weighted squatting, but he was reaping NO cardio rewards from holding onto the treadmill.
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