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I was a the heart specialist yesterday, and they wanted me on the treadmill, and they increased the incline to 15'.

To counter the incline I hung back on the bars they wanted me to keep a hold on so that my body was still "perpendicular" to the angle of the treadmill, thus (in my thinking) swapping the angle for effort in the arms.

In terms of energy did I win anything? Or did I expend the same both ways? I think I saved my legs some effort, but I'm not really sure.

Reenen Laurie
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  • Imagine your entire body weight hangs on the bars and your legs only have to fake the motion. How much energy would that take? Very little, right? What you were doing is in-between the two extremes, where you have to push your entire body weight up the incline and where you have to push up none. – CuriousOne Jul 13 '16 at 09:15
  • Related : What's the difference between running up a hill and running up an inclined treadmill?: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/1639 Does a moving escalator make it easier to walk up the steps?: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/19655 Is walking on ground identical to walking on treadmill?: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/38964 – sammy gerbil Jul 13 '16 at 11:14
  • Agree with previous comments. A medical test needs to know the total work outputted, and that's why you should not use the bar. However for casual workouts IMO you should use the bar to reduce strain on joints, more easily keep your balance, and distribute the work among more muscles (assuming you are after cardiovascular exercise). Then you can increase the total workout to compensate for the work 'saved' by using your arms. – Digiproc Jul 13 '16 at 11:25
  • At an absurd 90° incline, "running" amounts to moving your legs, but supporting no weight. All weight is being held by your arms in that case, so I conclude that a 15° angle perpendicular with the treadmill is simply slightly removing the amount of weight your legs have to support and putting that weight on your arms instead. In a certain sense, emulating running at a lower gravity for your legs. – Neil Jul 13 '16 at 11:35
  • Cool, thanks guys. I follow the logic. In summary for the purpose of that exercise (getting the heart to beat at X/Y beats per minute) it's fine, as they can just make it go faster, etc to increase the heartbeat, but if you're in it for cardiovascular exercise (as opposed to cardio checkup) then you're doing less exercise (which is missing the point of you being on the treadmill in the first place). – Reenen Laurie Jul 13 '16 at 12:53
  • For what it's worth, the difference in perceived exertion and ability to perform (and, I'm sure, heart rate) between hanging on vs. not hanging on during 15% treadmill workouts at, say, 4 mph, is very large. – Chelonian Mar 24 '22 at 18:36

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