Treadmills

Treadmills

Treadmills were first introduced to the world in 1875 as a method of harnessing animal power and by the 1920s; they were used in factories to create make manufacturing more efficient. Finally in 1952, a man by the name of Robert Bruce came up with the idea of having people run/walk on them. He used the treadmill for stress testing by connecting electrodes to the body of the patient which fed signals into an electrocardiograph[1]. This data was used to diagnose heart problems and used in heart and lung research later on. After that, the treadmill began to gain popularity with NASA as well as many other manufacturers. As a result, many new features were added to treadmills like the ability to choose your own speed and heart rate monitoring. And in 1968, Dr. Kenneth Cooper published research on the benefit of aerobic exercise which led to the development of the treadmill industry. From that point on, the treadmill became one of the most widely used biomedical devices anywhere, mostly because of its versatility and availability to people everywhere. The treadmill is effective in combating obesity and other health problems, as long as the treadmill is consistently used.

The treadmill industry has grown significantly in the past decade or two due to the increasingly relevance of obesity and other health problems. In terms of quality and performance, many different brands of treadmills can get the job done. However, some brands get higher average ratings than others. The leading brands include: Smooth, Proform, Nordic Track, and Sole. These brands are known to have solid features and lots of horse power. What does that mean? A serious burn, that’s what. With the recent addition of the incline features, treadmills continue to prove that there is an endless frontier in aerobic exercise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treadmill

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[1] "Treadmill History." Treadmill Life. 2007. 18 July 2008 .