Treadmill Exercise Offers Route to Good Health
In an effort to attract individuals who "hate"
treadmill exercise, The
Surgeon General's report recommends a wide range of activities, from washing and
waxing a car to social dancing, but Hartley believes many people will gravitate
to treadmill exercise.
"Many sedentary people probably don't realize how little effort it takes
to meet the Surgeon General's recommendation of burning about 150 calories a day
with an workout activity such as treadmill exercise," said Gregg Hartley, executive director of the Fitness Products
Council.
A 150-pound person could meet the requirement by walking at a moderate pace,
say 3 mph, doing treadmill exercise for 20 minutes in the morning and again for 17 minutes
in the evening, Hartley said. If the pace were quickened to 4 mph, the time
could be cut to 27 minutes a day. A
Little Effort Goes a Long Way "If Americans really hear how important it is to their health to become
more active--and how little exertion it takes to accomplish it with exercising
on a treadmill--the exercise
boom of the 1980s will seem small compared to what happens in the 21st
century," Hartley said.
Sales of exercise equipment, such as treadmills, will benefit from any such
boom, Hartley said, because well-built equipment offers the most efficient way
to meet the Surgeon General's recommendation. In fact, millions of American's
are already using treadmill exercise to get in shape.
 
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American consumers in 1995 spent an estimated $1.3 billion on treadmills for
home use, Hartley said, making treadmill exercise the most popular workout
activity. This
is more than three times the $400 million spent in 1988, when statistics were
first compiled. Well-constructed, motorized treadmills with computerized,
programmable display capabilities have suggested retail prices of $1,495 -
$2,795, Hartley added. Treadmills
Becoming Increasingly Popular
Between 1987 and 1995, the number of Americans who worked out
with treadmills grew 573%, from 4.4 million to 29.6 million, according to annual surveys by
American Sports Data, Inc., Hartsdale, N.Y.
"The growth in treadmill workouts is linked directly to the boom in fitness
walking," Hartley said, "and both are tied to increasing activity by
people aged 45 and older--people who took the Surgeon General's advice on
exercising to heart
before it was even issued."
Exercise Machines Get The Job Done Faster "The beauty of exercise machines is their efficiency," Hartley
said. "Good ones are built for the specific purpose of meeting the Surgeon
General's recommendations. The computers tell you how fast you are going, how
many calories you are burning and how long you need to continue your
treadmill workouts. You can get the
job done faster and leave no doubt you've achieved your goal.
"Exercise machines such as treadmills also encourage you to do what your body wants to do: increase
your effort after you begin to become more fit. This produces additional health
benefits."
Machines are great educators. People take what they learn about their bodies
from treadmill exercise and apply it to less structured exercise, such as lawn
work, walking or running.
The efficiency of various
treadmill walking workouts is illustrated by these charts,
comparing structured exercise with lifestyle activities. Calorie burn is
calculated for a person weighing 150 pounds. A lighter person would burn
proportionately fewer calories during treadmill exercise, a heavier person would burn proportionately
more.
| Structured Exercise*
| Minutes
|
Lifestyle Activities**
| Minutes
|
| Walk on a treadmill, 4 mph
| 32
| Walk 1 3/4 miles, 3 mph
| 37
|
| Jog slowly on a treadmill, 5 mph
| 18
| Wash and wax your car
| 45-60
|
| Ride a stationary bike with moderate resistance at
10mph
| 22
| Do some gardening
| 30-45
|
| Work out on a stair-climbing machine at moderate pace
| 21
| Rake leaves
| 30
|
| Circuit train: exercise steadily with light weights;
get breathing up
| 21
| Go dancing
| 29 |
| Sources: *Fitness Products Council; **
Surgeon General's Report and supporting documents. |
"As many Americans have already learned, regular workouts with machines
can be the foundation of a health and fitness program," Hartley said.
"We expect many more to discover this fact because of the Surgeon General's
report."
The Fitness Products Council is an association of some 180 manufacturers and
distributors of exercise equipment. It is part of the Sporting Goods
Manufacturers Association.
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