Can a Combat Athlete do ALL of their Roadwork on a Treadmill?

[Biggiebrother]

I do all my roadwork on the road, i like the fresh air, i live in a country with good weather (Australia) and i feel running on the road gives me more muscular endurance.

I don't think there is any doubt that if you are running to improve your running with maybe the intent of running in road races then you must run outside.

But for combat sports it is different, you are running to compliment your other conditioning. Your running ability as such isn't the main focus. I recall seeing Rich Frankin in his UFC ALL ACCESS do his running on a treadmilll.

Do you think a combat athlete can effectively do all of their roadwork on a treadmill ?

[erskine777]

for LSD i don't see any problems with it, but for sprints or HIIT you might run into some complications. it depends on how fast your treadmill can go, the ones in my school gym only go to 12 mph or so which isn't really a sprinting speed.

[Biggiebrother]

Yeah u can't do sprint sprints, u can get good treadmills which go upto 16 Mph

[Lopyswine]

i just dont think that lifting your body and having something move beneath can by as good as actually propeling your body forward.

[The Jake]

I think the treadmill is the only real limitation. My biggest problem is finding a proper running track. Nearest track to my house has ashphalt for the track

- J.

[Dan's Knuckles]

The key is that in order to work as hard on a treadmill at the same pace you have to increase the grade to I think 1.5%, but I'm not certain what the exact grade is. You can do a lot on good treadmills, you can run intervals, do lots of uphill stuff, plus some of them are slightly easier on your knees than blacktop and concrete, and you avoid some of the overuse injuries from running on uneven surfaces.

[Polynikes]

Absolutely...

You can run just as hard on a treadmill as you can outside. You can create hills that are as steep as you want them, you can control the pace, you can put water right there on the machine to hydrate with as you go along (running with water outside sucks), and last but not least, you can do it inside without having to worry about losing all of your energy from stifling heat/rain/unimproved roads that turn ankles/etc...

I live in the deep southeast, and I'll tell you the truth: it's just too hot to run outside sometimes. Seriously, cardiovascularly, you get no added benefit from sweating your absolute ass off. None...

The energy that could be spent doing one or two more intervals, is spent in the buckets you drip off in the form of sweat...

I'm not telling you to only run inside, I'm just telling you that there's nothing wrong with it...

There's a guy that has won 3 or 4 ultramarathons that lives in Seattle and ONLY trains indoors...

So, for the guys prepping themselves to compete in a 5k or 10k or whatever (even a marathon), there's nothing wrong with a treadmill...

Besides, if you're a combat athlete, you want to protect your knees/shins/ankles for your striking, and treadmills really take some of the pounding out of running outside...

[GThomas]

Originally Posted by Lopyswine

i just dont think that lifting your body and having something move beneath can by as good as actually propeling your body forward.

You my friend are some how defying the laws of physics when you run on a treadmill. Explain to me how one doesn't propel their body forward while running on a treadmill? If the treadmill belt is moving at 5 mph, then you have to be propeling your body forward at 5 mph or you will simply fall off the treadmill. Running on the treadmill is the same as running on solid ground. The thing that makes a treadmill easier for me is that it forces me to keep a steady pace. When I run outside I burn out quicker because I run at a faster pace without realizing it. Treadmills are absolutely fine for LSD running.

[sasquatch_nfld]

i think you definatly need roadwork, also wind sprints for explosive power which you can't get on a treadmill, plus if you are running lines, say on a foorball field, goal line to the 20 and back, and each set distance you bend down, touch the line with your hand, then backup and explode out of the crouch, it uses more of your body and trains it to react to real situations while in the ring, and nothing beats a hill, i don't care how expensive your treadmill is

[Polynikes]

Originally Posted by sasquatch_nfld

i think you definatly need roadwork, also wind sprints for explosive power which you can't get on a treadmill, plus if you are running lines, say on a foorball field, goal line to the 20 and back, and each set distance you bend down, touch the line with your hand, then backup and explode out of the crouch, it uses more of your body and trains it to react to real situations while in the ring, and nothing beats a hill, i don't care how expensive your treadmill is

You can do anything you want on a treadmill, save the basketball/football conditioning you're talking about...

How about this: instead of doing suicides (which you won't EVER do in a fight anyways), why not jump up on some boxes or something?

The hill argument of yours has already been covered, and yes, I have been on treadmills that you couldn't overwork...

There are treadmills out there that offer much more than you more than likely could handle, so say what you want...

There's a program on a treadmill that I used to run everyday while on my last deployment, and the name of the program was called "The Andes."

I would crank up the speed, but save the incline profile, and I'll tell you what, in order to finish that run, you better have your shit together. In fact, you better be very well prepared to run those hills, because they're coming at you with reckless abandon...

Also, let me explain something to you real quick: at the end of the day, your body has no idea whether or not you're running on a treamill or outdoors. It doesn't know...

As far as results, you get the results that you pay for with work. So, with that being said, you can't tell me that a treadmill is inferior to running outdoors.

You probably mistake the conditions of the run for the fitness adaptation of the run...

Meaning: just because it's hot as hell and you're sweating your ass off, you think that you've done much more work than you actually have, but at the end of the day, your fitness improvements only reflect the distance x time, and not the amount of sweat...

See what I mean?

And the guy two posts up hit the nail on the head when he said that a treamill feels easier b/c it forces you into a rhythm...which it does...When you're not on a belt traveling at a set speed, you're speed is influenced by many external influences...

Such as traffic intersections, oncoming cars, hurrying to get home b/c of a storm front, pedestrians walking around, hopping up onto sidewalks, jumping over logs, sand, dirt, and our own ego (showing off in front of spectators)...

It's merely a lack of self discipline...