Walking and running are the most natural behaviors of human beings. For normal people, there is no need to master special skills. Running is an international popular aerobic exercise, which is highly respected by the medical and sports circles.
However, due to the limitation of environment and climate, it is impossible to exercise at any time, so there are many sports rehabilitation equipment that simulate running or walking.
Early mechanical treadmills were artificially driven by sole friction. The defect of its design principle determines that it is difficult to meet the requirements of aerobic exercise. At the same time, the gait is not natural enough to lead to uncoordinated muscle movements and stiff feeling.
In contrast, the electric treadmill developed in recent years has been loved by people because it is more in line with the physiological characteristics of aerobic exercise, and has gradually entered thousands of households and become an integral part of modern family fashion life.
Harm of mechanical treadmill
The mechanical treadmill drives the running belt to run around in the human body, which seems to consume more energy on the surface. However, due to the excessive concentration of torsion deliberately produced backward in order to make the running belt run backward during running, it is more likely to cause chronic fatigue of tendon tissues at the stressed parts, thus breaking the local balance of these tissues and damaging their health.
Turning sports into a kind of fatigue is the bane of people's interest in sports and the main reason why most athletes fail in sports.
It is not surprising that more and more users of traditional treadmills find that the more serious they exercise, the thicker their legs and the weaker their joints. This kind of fatigue and side effects of fitness will seriously dampen your enthusiasm for fitness.
Principle of electric treadmill
The electric treadmill drives the running belt through the motor, so that people can run or walk passively at different speeds or slopes, which greatly improves the comfort of sports, avoids the unfavorable factors of outdoor sports such as weather and environment, and reduces the possibility of sports injuries.
Running or walking on an electric treadmill is a full-body exercise mode because there is almost no stretching exercise in its exercise mode. Compared with land exercise, it can reduce the intensity of exercise and increase the amount of exercise, which has a very good effect on improving the user's cardiopulmonary function, physical endurance and fat consumption.
Under the same exercise intensity, electric running consumes 40% more calories per hour than other common aerobic exercise equipment, such as exercise bike, rowing boat and climbing machine. Through the integrated electronic equipment and control system, the electric treadmill can also conveniently record the distance, time, heat consumption and other sports data of athletes, and the heart rate test function can accurately display the current heart rate of athletes, so as to exercise more scientifically and safely.
Therefore, the electric treadmill is a high-tech product that integrates sports physiology, ergonomics, precision mechatronics and other technologies. Running or walking on an electric treadmill is one of the best aerobic exercises.
Which is better, mechanical treadmill or electric treadmill?
1. Comparison of construction principles between mechanical treadmills and electric treadmills
The transmission system of the mechanical treadmill consists of a conveyor belt sleeve, two fixed shafts with two ends tensioning the conveyor belt, a shaft connected with the roller, an adjustable switch and a fixed frame, which is mainly driven by the friction between the runner's feet and the running belt.
The electric treadmill is driven by the motor, and the speed of the motor is controlled by the frequency converter to adjust the speed change during running. The control of frequency converter is to process the signal of sensor (voltage conversion), and then count it, so as to get the speed. From this point of view, mechanical treadmills are much more laborious and inconvenient than electric treadmills, so it is difficult to stick to them.
2. Comparison of the health and safety of users between mechanical treadmills and electric treadmills.
Mechanical treadmill can be said to be an active running equipment. Its power source is that users push the treadmill through their own arms, knees, ankles and related muscles to generate backward thrust.
Exercise on the treadmill in this way will cause several times more sports injuries than running in nature. Sports medicine experts say that every kilometer on the road, each foot will hit the ground about 1000 times, and the ankles, knees and buttocks will be shaken, which will easily lead to muscle sprain or ligament strain. When running on a mechanical treadmill, the human body will not only shake the ankles, knees and hips.
Because the electric treadmill is a combination of active and passive movements, running or walking on the electric treadmill will have less kicking and stretching than ordinary people. The advantage of this way is that everyone will feel relaxed and carefree when running on the electric treadmill.
In addition, the running board of mechanical treadmill is made of common material, which can't protect joints and has few shock absorption designs, so it is easy to cause injuries to athletes' knees and ankles when they take the initiative to walk or pedal. Many technologies are added to the electric treadmill, which makes the training effect more scientific. The patented shock absorption system has little influence on the knee joint and ankle joint, and reduces the possibility of sports injury.
3. Comparison of development trends between mechanical treadmills and electric treadmills
Mechanical treadmills belong to the sports products of the 1990s, and are the treadmills of the earlier generation. With the upgrading of treadmills, they are gradually replaced by electric treadmills, and now they have basically faded out of the market. The R&D and production of electric treadmill is based on mechanical treadmill, which can also be said to be an upgraded version of mechanical treadmill.
4. Price comparison between mechanical treadmills and electric treadmills.
The mechanical treadmill costs only a few hundred yuan, and the cheapest electric treadmill costs about 2,000 yuan. The price difference is several times, but it is related to the driving force, basic structure, function and comfort of the treadmill. The motor, running board, running belt and heart rate test of electric treadmill are very different from those of mechanical treadmill. Electric running also has different resistance and slope adjustment, and the running kilometers, energy consumption, heart rate and other data are beyond the reach of mechanical treadmills. As the saying goes, what you get for a penny is perfect here.
Bian Xiao's summary:
Mechanical treadmill
Advantages: simple, firm, durable, energy-saving and cheap.
Disadvantages: easy to cause sports injuries, poor exercise effect, has been eliminated by the market.
Treadmill
Advantages: the movement is more natural, and there are computer programs, computer speed regulation, and the movement is more convenient.
Disadvantages: In order to achieve the purpose of safety and comfort, the running belt of modern electric running is wider and longer, and the corresponding floor space is larger than that of mechanical running. It is suggested to choose a treadmill with a wide running belt under the same floor space.