Treadmill Douche-baggery? (Read 942 times)

stadjak


Interval Junkie --Nobby

    -5F / -25F w/WC.  Yeah, so I hit the gym.  I just don't have the clothes for Alaska.

     

    Every trip to the gym to do my hamster workout on the dreadmill offers me the same weird sight:  some young and handsome douche-bag saddles up to a pretty girl fast-walking a treadmill.  He straddles the belt, keeping his feet on the immobile platform.  Proceeding to up the speed of the 'mill to a runnable speed, he tests it a few times by dropping a foot on and letting it fly back.  Once the mill gets to his ultra-speedy 6.8mph (woah, nelly) he hops on and starts running.

     

    Is there some benefit, that I can't fathom, to skipping the short warmup to that speed?  I'm sure my legs could handle a sudden 8:50 pace, but why?

     

    Alternative versions include the guy who cranks it up to 9mph then hops on for 2 minutes, then hops into the straddle again.  Maybe that makes more sense -- since the belt doesn't stop as quickly as you might on the track if you're doing sprint intervals.

    2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do


    Menace to Sobriety

      Yeah, and then there's the treadmill "hall monitor" type that always watching what everyone else is doing.

      Janie, today I quit my job. And then I told my boss to go f*** himself, and then I blackmailed him for almost sixty thousand dollars. Pass the asparagus.

      Netizen Kane


        I hop-on-hop-off; the gym i go to there really is no alternative when doing intervals. The speed goes up in 0.1kmh increments - so i need to press a button 160 times to get to 16kmh, and then another zillion times to get back to a recovery speed. 8 reps means pushing a button over 2,000 times.

         

        Having a runner's body and Arnold Schwarzenegger's index finger isn't a great look.


        Kalsarikännit

          Go outside. It is refreshing and brisk today. Makes you feel alive (of course that's the only thing you will be feeling).

          I want to do it because I want to do it.  -Amelia Earhart

           

            Yeah, and then there's the treadmill "hall monitor" type that always watching what everyone else is doing.

             

            "it was so weird today at the gym, some young and handsome upstanding citizen sidled up to my treadmill, which was coincidentally located next to an attractive fast-walking girl. He stood behind me scribbling furiously into a notepad, craning his neck to see the control panel. I think he was  just jealous because he's not coordinated enough to impress the ladies with my one-footed treadmill speed testing trick."

             

             

            mta: just joking around, stadjak. I make similar observations every time I go to the gym, so we know that that these behaviors are international...I just file it under "people: who the $&@; knows."

            Joann Y


               

              "it was so weird today at the gym, some young and handsome upstanding citizen sidled up to my treadmill, which was coincidentally located next to an attractive fast-walking girl. He stood behind me scribbling furiously into a notepad, craning his neck to see the control panel. I think he was  just jealous because he's not coordinated enough to impress the ladies with my one-footed treadmill speed testing trick."

               

              Yes!

              stadjak


              Interval Junkie --Nobby

                 

                "it was so weird today at the gym, some young and handsome upstanding citizen sidled up to my treadmill . . .

                 

                LOL.  Man, there are just so many enticing ways to be a creep at the gym.

                 

                I think I need to double-dog-dare myself to run outside today.  The Virginia winters have thinned my blood.

                2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do


                Feeling the growl again

                  The only time I use the side rails is to let the belt start moving on start, and when I am about to hit stop.  Some machines don't stop as smoothly -- including my home machine -- so it's easier just to jump off then stop the belt.

                   

                  Whenever I am force to run in a gym/hotel and see such behavior I like to jump on next to them and crank it up to at least 10mph for a few miles.

                  "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                   

                  I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                   


                  Prince of Fatness

                    You folks do understand that you're not really running, right?

                    Not at it at all. 

                    TripleBock


                      I am on TM alot and I see goofy stuff, I also see stuff that is cool.  There is a guy at the YMCA that walks over at lunch and runs the best he cna on the TM - He has to use a little jerk on his one leg as it appears he has no calf muscle on the one side.

                       

                      I will see people that are obviously 100# overweight (Pot calling the Kettle fat) and they will proceed to run (Maybe slowly 5-5.5 mps) for an hour.

                      I am fuller bodied than Dopplebock

                        Yeah lots of weird and cool stuff at the gym. I like it for the people watching as much for the climate-control, good footing, and lack of 2 ton hunks of steel and glass being piloted by distracted, half-asleep drivers.

                         

                        The guy I don't get is the one who puts the incline up to 10 but then leans back while holding onto the console with both hands and walks "uphill". Is this basically a forearm workout?

                        Runners run


                        You Rang?

                           

                          I will see people that are obviously 100# overweight (Pot calling the Kettle fat) and they will proceed to run (Maybe slowly 5-5.5 mps) for an hour.

                           

                          I did that.  I was somewhere north of 300 lb.  I hopped on a hotel treadmill, and set it to 5.2 mph.  Sixty-six minutes, a little puff of black smoke rose from the motor housing and the treadmill belt slowly came to a stop.

                          Rick 

                          PR: 5k 25:01 (10/15) 10k: 57:44 (7/14) HM: 1:57 (5/15) FM: 4:55 (1/15)

                          Julia1971



                            Alternative versions include the guy who cranks it up to 9mph then hops on for 2 minutes, then hops into the straddle again.  Maybe that makes more sense -- since the belt doesn't stop as quickly as you might on the track if you're doing sprint intervals.

                             

                            The behavior might be someone doing the cardio portion of some kind of HIIT workout.  (Scroll down on this page for a sample interval workout).  It probably makes more sense to hop off the belt than hitting the up and down button every 10-30 seconds.

                             

                            Edited to add: Or, what Netizen Kane said.  Smile


                            jfa

                              Oh yeah, the resolutionarys are back.

                              Highlighting the gym experience lately are the ladies who have yet to discover the benefits of wearing a sports bra (good) and the guys who cover the tm with sweat and don't wipe (bad).

                              Fun times indeed.

                               

                               

                               

                               

                               

                               

                                I hop-on-hop-off; the gym i go to there really is no alternative when doing intervals.

                                 

                                I have discovered an alternative, although I'm sure it depends on the brand of treadmill. The 'mills at my gym (some kind of LifeFitness gym model) have a "Speed Interval" button. You can set a "Jog" speed and a "Run" speed and toggle between them with a press of a button. It was a pretty magical day when I discovered that.

                                Runners run