Group treadmilling is on the fast track to popularity
If you're looking for a way to escape the heat, make some friends and spice up your fitness routine this summer, group treadmilling just might be the answer.
Touted as a new twist on the wildly popular spin classes, treadmill training pairs you with 20 or so other motivated exercisers in a room with an instructor who calls out the routine, espouses encouragement and keeps you honest (hands off the rails, ladies!). It's the hottest fitness trend in major cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, where studios devoted solely to the practice are on the rise (look out, Soul Cycle) and major chains such as Equinox are offering group classes exclusively for members.
The beauty of treadmill training is its simplicity. "If you can run, you can use a treadmill," says Debora Warner, founder of Mile High Run Club in New York City, which offers group treadmill classes from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week.
On the other hand, knowing precisely how to set the machine to maximize your results is a bit more complicated, which is where an instructor comes in handy. "You'll see people at the gym get on, hit 'go' — and then have no idea what they're supposed to be doing," says Warner. "We take the mystery out of it by telling you when to go fast and how much recovery to take."
Fast, of course, is a relative term: What's speedy for a recent couch potato might be a leisurely jog for a former college athlete. But in treadmill classes, pace differences are irrelevant.
"One person may run a 7-minute mile, and someone else might run a 10-minute mile, but since the workout is based on effort, they achieve the same results in terms of elevated heart rate and fat burning," says John Henwood, a former Olympic runner who launched his group treadmill classes, called TheRUN, in Manhattan this past April. Henwood uses proprietary software to assess each runner's fitness during the first five minutes of the class warm-up. That data are then entered into an algorithm that determines paces for the rest of the workout. (Bonus: The state-of-the-art treadmills in Henwood's classes actually change tempo for you, so there is no manual adjustment with sweaty fingers slipping all over the screen.)
Of course, there's no reason you need a studio and stationary equipment to reap the benefits of running. You could, after all, gather a couple of friends and hits the trails near your house. But maybe your don't have trails. Or friends who jog. And maybe it's hot, and you want something quick and convenient. Beyond all that, there's another reason these new classes are so popular: Interval training — short bursts of high-intensity movement followed by a recovery period — is the new buzzword when it comes to calorie-burning. "Running intervals on a treadmill is the best burn for your buck at the gym," Henwood says.
During the 45- to 60-minute classes, exercisers switch back and forth between hard and easy paces, with bouts of non-running moves mixed in. "Our workouts include four 15-minute segments, alternating between the treadmill and strength training on the floor," says Bonnie Micheli, co-founder of Shred415 in Chicago. Together with Tracy Roemer, Micheli launched her first treadmill gym four years ago. Next week, the partners are opening their sixth Chicago location (they also own a studio in St. Louis).
"We knew within a few months of launching our first space that this was going to be a success," Roemer says. "The classes filled up so fast we were already looking for a place to open a second one." She describes Chicago's fitness scene as a sea of yoga studios and Pilates centers, but options for hardcore interval training were few — and Shred415 filled that niche. "The really sells itself," Micheli says. "People do it for a few months, and the transformation in their appearance is so huge, they are hooked."
Before You Go
Four things to know before taking your first treadmill class:
No runner is left behind. A common fear among beginning runners is that they will too slow to keep up with a group. In these classes, you can relax: No one's treadmill is going anywhere without you.
It's a party, not a meditation. A morning jog in the park can instill a sense of inner calm. Not in these classes, where pumping music and an instructor's enthusiastic shouts create an energetic (if frenetic) feel.
Think effort, not pace. Your treadmill settings will be based on feel, so your screen could look totally different than someone else's. Take your cues off your instructor, not the numbers on a neighboring machine.
Expect delays. It takes the treadmill belt five to 10 seconds to shift from a walking to sprinting pace, so if your class calls for a 30-second all-out run, you'll spend the first third of it just getting up to speed. (One new class, TheRUN in NYC, seeks to combat this with preprogrammed settings.)
Find a Treadmill Class Near You
The trend is reaching more cities::
Chicago: Shred415
New York: TheRUN, Mile High Run Club
Dallas: Tread Fitness
Los Angeles: Burn 60
Miami: Crunch Gym Tread N' Shed
Washington: Precision Running at Sports Club