So that's why they're hateful abominations

Comments

• gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  For the uninitiated:

  When English civil Engineer Sir William Cubitt invented the “treadwheel,” he didn’t have fitness on his mind.

  His device was used to reform convicts.

  Prisoners were forced to climb the spokes of a large paddle wheel known as the “eternal staircase.” The resulting energy was used to pump water or crush grain (hence, the eventual transition from “treadwheel” to “treadmill”).

  One prison guard claimed that it was the treadmill’s “monotonous steadiness, and not its severity, which constitutes its terror.”

  The use of treadwheels was abolished in Britain by the Prisons Act of 1898. Years later, when aerobic exercise became popular in the 1960’s, the treadmill resurfaced.

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  • paddirn@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    And treadmills now probably consume way more power now than they could actually generate.

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    • sploosh@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Most treadmills run on DC motors with magnets in them, so they could generate all the power you like if you pushed the treadmill and had the right controller.

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    • qjkxbmwvz@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I’m annoyed that the nice bike trainers don’t generate power, or at least have the option to. My Wahoo shouldn’t be drawing power from the grid, it should be supplying it!

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    • Mongostein@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I used to have a cheap one with no motor at all. It was slightly inclined. You just pushed backwards to get it started and it used your own momentum/gravity to turn.

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  • Donkter@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    So the original treadmills required the user to push them and they couldn’t leave? That does sound way worse.

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  • NoneYa@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Was the law ever changed to allow for personal use of the treadmill? Or did this just extend to using it as a form of torture?

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    • HikingVet@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Probably just outlawed it as a form of punishment or torture.

      Using a tread wheel in a mill, crane or for dewatering is ancient, think Ancient Greece. Up until the Industrial Revolution, it was a major source of power where you couldn’t get flowing water on a consistent basis. Use for fitness doesn’t constitute torture by the state.

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  • CJOtheReal@ani.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Tbh, that’s not a bad idea on a technical perspective.

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• Stamets@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  No, I didn’t faceplant on one as a child and have the skin rubbed off and now as an adult absolutely hates the things for no real logical reason, I don’t know what you’re talking about

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  • Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    There are perfectly logical reasons outside of face planting to hate them. I get that the weather can be shitty outside sometimes, but I’ll take some scenery over a treadmill any day.

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    • PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      This is it for me. I have friends who train for halfs and marathons on a treadmill, and I struggle to focus beyond a mile and a half or so. It’s not the cardio element, it’s just the sheer boredom factor.

      Getting out and about even in gash weather is infinitely preferable from my perspective. I’d much rather smash in six miles on tarmac than one or two on the treaddy. Plus, you can’t rack up Pokémon Go distance on a treadmill.

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  • Dkarma@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    You’re supposed to move your feet…

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  • Odo@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Harrison, is that you?

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• cashsky@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Ellipticals are a better exercise overall anyways.

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  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Maybe it's because I'm the wrong size but I can never get a rhythm going on an elliptical. It just feels weird.

    But I love a good rowing machine. Makes me feel like a pirate rowing ashore with a chest full of booty. Does wonders for my shoulders, too

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    • HikingVet@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah, never really liked ellipticals, or treadmills for that matter. Could go for quite a bit on a rowing machine, it doesn’t feel much different than a scull, other than not moving through water.

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• tygerprints@kbin.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Ok that justifies my hatred of treadmills. Is there a way to justify my hatred of all other forms of exercise also? I know I should exercise more - but....it just seems like work to me.

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  • EclecticDad@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It is work. That is kind of the point. I also do enough and hate it because it’s work

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    • tygerprints@kbin.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I know I was being very facetious. Sort of. Um maybe not, I really do hate lifting a finger, let alone an arm or leg. Partly it's because of hernias that I'm kind of afraid of doing too much activity, and partly I'm just lazy by nature.

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  • GBU_28@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Stop exerting yourself souch, put your phone down for a bit to save energy

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