Em um estudo o fisiologista inglês Andrew Jones concluiu que elevar a
inclinação da esteira em 1% para equivaler a corrida ao ar livre, só
surtiu efeito desejado aos corredores com ritmo de 4'26"/km ou mais
forte.
LEONARDO LIMA
Biomechanics Expert Debunks Treadmill-Running Myths
Many commonly held beliefs about treadmills fail scientific scrutiny.
This is a pop quiz. Ready? Here’s the question: When running on a
treadmill, how can you adjust the treadmill to make it equivalent to
running outdoors?
Don’t congratulate yourself too fast, at least not if you gave this
common answer of setting the treadmill’s incline at 1%. Even though
this method has been oft-repeated through the years, it turns out to be
mostly urban myth. The correct answer can be found in a wonderful treadmill-running blog recently posted by Casey Kerrigan, founder and president of Oesh Shoes.
Kerrigan, a Harvard Medical School graduate with a masters in
physical rehabilitation, spent many years doing research into walking
and running biomechanics. When one study indicated that high-heeled shoes can lead to knee arthritis
among women, she began looking into healthier designs. Several years
ago, she left a tenured position at the University of Virginia to launch
Oesh, which makes running and walking shoes for women only.
In her blog, Kerrigan notes that the widely quoted 1% rule
represents an oversimplification of the original investigation by
England’s Andrew Jones. Jones is the well-respected exercise
physiologist who tested Paula Radcliffe during her career, and recently pioneered work with beet juice as a performance-enhancer.
In his famous treadmill study,
Jones tested experienced runners at six per-mile paces (9:11, 8:03,
7:09, 6:25, 5:51, and 5:21) while they ran on a treadmill that was
either flat or inclined by various amounts. Setting the treadmill at a
1% incline made the effort equivalent to outdoor running only to those
running 7:09 pace or faster. Let’s face it: Most of us are slower than
that. You’re correct if you believe that treadmill runners don’t
encounter the “cost” of moving through the air around them (because they
don't move; they stay in one place). But it simply doesn’t add up to
anything significant unless you’re running 7:09 pace or faster.
What else can Kerrigan teach us about treadmill running? That the
biomechanics, contrary to what many believe, are essentially the same as
overground running. “We had to do a study on that [here] to convince the National Institutes of Health to fund some of our other work,” she told Runner’s World Newswire.
“People have a bias against treadmill running–that real runners don’t
do it, or that it changes your leg movements. It’s all garbage. We found
some minor changes, but they weren’t the ones people expected, and they
don’t affect anyone’s running biomechanics.”
Kerrigan notes that she is often asked about holding onto a
treadmill’s handles or side rails while running. Apparently some runners
believe this is a good way to reduce ground reaction forces when they
are injured. Kerrigan cautions against the approach. “You can really
screw yourself up,” she says. “You might think you can push down with
your arms to unweight your legs, but it’s almost impossible to get the
timing right. Believe me, I’ve researched this.”
When it comes to her own treadmill running, Kerrigan favors
simplicity. She selects the “manual” setting and doesn’t bother with any
up-or-down inclines. “And I always choose the treadmill in my gym that I
know overestimates my speed,” she says.
The video below shows how to break up a long run on the treadmill without fiddling with the incline.
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