TREADMILL RUNNING - Training With Dr.Romanov

TREADMILL RUNNING - Training With Dr.Romanov
"The difference between running on the treadmill and running over ground can be discussed from mechanical, biomechanical and physiological points of view.

From the point of view of mechanics there is no difference between belt moving under our feet and our body moving forward in over ground running provided the velocity is the same. Indeed we are operating here with the same speed and consequently with the same forces on the ground and the same muscular efforts.

While it doesn't matter for mechanics which of the interacting bodies is moving: the belt or the body, it is not so for biomechanics. It makes a big difference there. The major one lies in the fact that in treadmill running, unlike over ground running, our upper body is not moving forward, it's our feet that are moved backwards by the running belt. This difference creates a different bio-motor pattern of the movement, where we have to produce some (otherwise undesirable) activity of the upper body to keep it against tipping over the support foot on the belt of the treadmill in order to keep the body in balance. So we have to hold our body to keep it from falling forward and we have to catch the running belt instead of our falling body. "