You Need a Treadmill Just like Eskimos Need a Refrigerator

So many people purchase a gym membership just to work out on a treadmill, elliptical, or stationary bike. It is just a paradox like if Eskimos buy freezers.

I believe that using these machines in the gym is justifiable in a select few situations:

• Warming up for a workout

• Cooling down after a workout

• Extreme weather conditions (extreme heat, extreme cold, lighting)

• You live in Manhattan

Why to do your cardio on the treadmill, elliptical, or stationary bike if you can simply run in the park or on a trail? You can even run on the street if you do not mind to run when the air is clean: early in the morning or late in the evening. Working out on these cardio machines is not an alternative to doing same things outdoors. Running outdoors (or for that matter riding a bike outdoors) is much more challenging and beneficial than simulating the same exercise inside. I have listed some differences between treadmill and outdoor running:

Running Outdoors	Running Treadmill
Clean air	Not so clean air
Changing and unpredictable environment	Boring and predictable environment
It is all you and your will	Treadmill belt is there to propel you
Turns and downhills	Only straight and up
Wind resistance	No wind resistance
Larger  variety of muscles are involved	Running muscles involved only
Increased production of serotonin	Serotonin is not produced
Feel happy and energized when you are done	You don’t feel like you accomplished anything

So, do not go to the gym to do something that is readily available and free and also a lot, lot better. When you go to the gym do what you cannot find anywhere else: lift free weights so that you can increase strength and bone density, hire a competent personal trainer who will design a training program that will make it possible to achieve your personal goal, hire a competent nutritionist who will explain to you why you cannot eat McDonalds and expect to lose weight, take a martial arts class that will put your entire body and mind in use and also teach you self defense skills. But please do not go to the gym to do or use something that you can do as soon as you step out of your house.