When it’s cold and miserable or scalding hot outside, a treadmill is a lifeline for the passionate runner. These infinite rolling roads have no hills, a cup holder for your water, and maybe even a TV to keep you entertained and motivated. Running on a treadmill feels a little different than running over the ground. But does running on a treadmill increase injury risk? Today, we’ll look at the science and answer this question once and for all.
Is running on a treadmill the same as running outside?
Over the years, LOTS of scientists have looked into the differences between running outside and running on a treadmill. All those runners in all those labs have produced conflicting data. Some studies show that running on a treadmill changes one aspect of the running stride. Others find the exact opposite. Over hundreds of studies, one thing is consistent: inconsistency.
To get to the bottom of this question, we dug through a (review) on the current science of treadmill running. These researchers weighed all the evidence and concluded that the differences are small. Running outside and running on a treadmill is pretty much the same in terms of the strain it puts on your body. But, there are some exceptions.
The differences between running on a treadmill and running outside
There is only one significant difference between running outside and running on a treadmill: your knee and ankle bend differently on the treadmill than they do when you run over roads or trails. If you’re super nerdy, (like we are!) the technical term for this phenomenon is “sagittal plane joint kinematics at foot strike.”
The good news is that these differences in ankle and knee bend are VERY small. They depend on the stiffness of the treadmill surface, your personal experience running on treadmills, and a few other small factors.
All in all, they don’t add up to much.
So, does running on a treadmill increase injury risk?
No. Running on a treadmill is a great way to get your run in, especially when outdoor conditions are poor. And, running on a treadmill doesn’t change enough about your running stride to change your risk of injury.
Over the years, lots of people with good intentions have warned that treadmill running comes with risks. Odds are they looked at only one study! We read the MASSIVE summary by the scientists who looked at 400 studies. They’re not too worried, so you shouldn’t worry either!
In general, the best thing you can do to lower injury risk is train sensibly. Maintain your strength by incorporating common sense prehab exercises and you’ll be fine! If you’re looking to get started with prehab, try the recover athletics app. It helps you fix aches and pains, and prevent injury with 100% evidence based exercises.
If you don’t know us, we’re so glad you stopped by our page. Recover athletics is a team of runners, doctors, physical therapists, and entrepreneurs. We’ve made it our mission to help runners around the world prevent injury. Meet our team.