Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with workout and treadmill

Joint pain after treadmill usage

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:46:43 -0800

YANMD (or my personal trainer) but I need advice on a cardio workout that will help me lose weight and also not kill my joints. Difficulty: I am quite overweight...my BMI is just shy of 60 I have lost 50 lbs (yay me!) but still have a ways to go. To keep the momentum on my weight loss, my wife and I joined a gym this past weekend.

Living in a small town our gym options were limited and we settled for a Snap Fitness which has no 2 year contracts, is reasonably priced, and consists of a number of bikes, ellipticals, treadmills, and some nautilus-type weight equipment.

I am gunning for an hour workout a day, and as my goal is to build endurance and lose weight I'm focusing on cardio. My plan for these early days was 30 minutes on the bike and 30 minutes on the treadmill.

On Sunday, our first day working out, I did a bit over 30 minutes on the tradmill, my heart rate held around 140, and my average was just under 3MPH. I was happy with that result...it was a well paced walk, which is what I could handle at this point.

I quit after the treadmill, not moving on to the bike, because after stopping I realized I was in a lot of pain. It wasn't muscle pain, which is what I anticipated, but instead it was severe joint pain, focused in my ankle and my knee. My feet also ached.

I took some Advil and resolved to go back the next day, but the pain actually worsened the more time passed. It's now been over 48 hours and I'm still on a heavy Advil rotation and have not returned to work out as standard walking is quite painful at the moment.

(background: despite my weight I have no history of joint problems, and my feet do normally bother me if I walk a good distance of a couple miles, but never my ankles and knees like this).

I'm not sure if I should "push through the pain" and hop back on the treadmill, if I should just focus on the stationary bike for a while and do 60 minutes on the bike completely foregoing the treadmill, or if there is a better option.

Suggestions would be most appreciated.

Casual games for the treadmill

mmoncur — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:12:49 -0800

I have a computer (macbook pro) next to my treadmill. Please suggest some casual games I could play while exercising. The WGA strike has put a kink in my "watch TV while walking away the pounds" plan, so I'm looking for games to play while on the treadmill. Requirements:

1. Works on a mac, either online or off
2. Casual, nothing I'd have to devote my life to. Can play a session in 45 minutes or less.
3. Requires little to no keyboard use. I have a mouse handy but typing is difficult at speed.
4. More strategy than intensity. If it requires intense concentration and focus, I'm likely to fall off the treadmill.
5. Interesting enough to make me forget I'm doing something healthy.

Examples I've found so far: Desktop Tower Defense and its relatives; Bejeweled; Peggle.

Free or paid, online or offline. Thanks for your suggestions.

Workouts!

SirStan — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 18:38:11 -0800

Advice for training for a 5k run. I am looking into running a 5k run this May, which leaves plenty of time. For a while I was working my way up on the Couch to 5k progression, and I am (was) at step 6. I took a ~8 weeks off from the gym when I broke my toe, and am now getting back into it. I have started back at step 5, which I can handle.

My question is this.. Being overweight (~250lb, 6'2", 23yr) how bad is this for the knees? I am exercising mainly on a treadmill at a gym. Should I be doing this more on an elliptical? How applicable is a elliptical workout to a treadmill workout for a real-life 5k run on streets?

Thanks!

Heart-rate monitor attached to treadmill

Saucy Intruder — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 08:15:31 -0800

Yesterday on "CBS Sunday Morning," a correspondent chronicled his attempt to lose weight. I'm trying to identify one of the machines that his personal trainer used to evaluate his progress. The device was attached to an ordinary treadmill. The subject would exercise for a few minutes, and the device would check his vital signs (presumably his heart rate, but perhaps also other indicia.) When he first came to the trainer, the machine said that his health was "poor." Ten weeks later, although he hadn't lost any weight, he was reevaluated as "excellent." The trainer said that this was because he had exchanged fat for muscle.

What kind of machine is this? Is it a simple heart rate analysis or is something more complex going on?

Treadmill recommendations?

joaquim — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 13:13:39 -0800

Treadmill recommendations? My requirements: reliability, ~$1k, distance and rate display. Don't necessarily need: fans, built-in programs, elevation, pulse rate monitors, etc.