Why do some people get on/off the treadmill when it’s still moving? They do this thing where they hold the hand rail-y part of the treadmill and then lift themselves on or off. I’d be too afraid to crash so I just stop it to get off. (Also, if I leave to go get a drink, it doesn’t record when I haven’t been walking/running.) What gives?
ETA: To clarify, they straddle the edge and then get on when it’s in motion.
Because I’m an idiot who tends to run until he absolutely can’t run anymore.
I guess I had not realized this was wrong.
Addendum: I don’t get on the treadmill when it’s going. I get on and slowly build up to a run. But I do get off in the way you described before it’s stopped.
I step on the treadmill when it’s in motion. I don’t like the sensation of starting it up while I’m standing on it. It starts very slowly, though, so it doesn’t feel like a risky maneuver.
I get off the treadmill only when it’s going so fast I can’t take off.
Because that is what I was taught to do (by a personal trainer) the first time I ever used a treadmill. I never start or stop a treadmill while standing on the belt. I was under the impression that doing so wasn’t good for the machine. Also, I’m kind of a klutz, and I’m afraid I’d lose my balance if I turned it on/off while standing on the belt.
I’ve never left it running if I actually leave the machine, though.
Because there’s a point at which it’s just too slow to walk comfortably, but yet isn’t quite safe enough to step off.
I do it because our treadmills have a safety feature where you can’t turn up the speed quickly. It stops going up every .5 mph. So you have to pick up your finger, pause, and press the button again. So it takes a good 20 seconds to get it up to 8 or 9, and in the middle of it, I’m trying to press buttons while jogging.
Also, if you’re changing speeds, it screws with the distance/time part. I like to time my run, so I just get it set to the right speed and watch the distance (or time) until it’s at a round number so I can subtract that later. Like, I’ll wait for it to get to .05 miles, see that it took 18 seconds, run til 2.05 miles, and subtract the 18 seconds off the time it shows. In other words, jumping on “squares” my stats.
Why would it be bad for the machine, though? how would it “know” if you were on or off it?
In terms of being too slow to walk comfortably, it doesn’t take that long for me to speed it up to walk/run at the distance I like.
I’d never heard this either, but my hypothesis would be that it’s already accelerating or decelerating quite quickly, and adding your mass would mean it would have to work harder to do these things. The harder the machine has to work, the quicker it wears out.
Personally, I’ve always just let the machine slide me off, which is probably worse for the same reason. There’s no way I’d get on one that was already moving, though.
The instructions for my treadmill say to get it moving while standing on the side rails and then step on. I don’t recall that they required you to step off while it was still moving.
Sometimes it’s because they’re drunk in the name of science.
For fun!