Guess which is the best instrument for monitoring your heart rate. The treadmill, of course. If you don’t believe me, ask the doctors. Usually, when you visit a doctor for heart check-up, he would advise you to walk on a treadmill. As you walk, the incline of the treadmill would be gradually increased so that you would feel like you are walking up a sloppy hill.
You would also be asked to breathe into a specially-made tube on a regular basis through the workout session. Doctors call it “stress test” or “treadmill” test. As you finish the exercise, you would be asked to sit down at a nearby place so that your heart rate could be checked.
Okay, now don’t try to emulate your doctor as soon you return home, for a home-based treadmill often functions in a different way that the ones used by medical professionals. To give you an idea, treadmills used by hospitals generally have long handle bars that extend up to the end of the treadmills. The patient can, if he wants, hold on to those handle bars while walking on the treadmill.
Another unique feature of medical treadmills is that they also come with an emergency stop button, so that if the patient feels uneasy or dizzy while walking on the treadmill, he may press the stop button and finish the exercise early. The stop button can also be used in case of an unexpected power failure. These days however, most decently priced home treadmills also come with an emergency stop button.
You may or may not know it, but treadmills, especially the ones used by doctors, are not only useful in evaluating your heart rate but also making it healthier by improving its functions. Do you know that if you simply walk on the treadmill thrice per week, your heart is guaranteed to function normally? This is the reason why many doctors use treadmills not only for diagnostic but also therapeutic purposes.
Don’t you just hate the idea of having to walk up to your doctor’s chamber everyday just so you could do those treadmill workouts? Good news is that you can have the same treadmill at your home as the one used by your doctor. Your just need to hunt for “medical treadmills” instead of “home treadmills”.
To make sure that you purchase the right equipment, let me mention some of the salient features found in medical treadmills:
a) A walking base with an incline that simulates walking up to a hill. In other words, with the help of such a treadmill, you can get the benefits of walking up a hill WITHOUT leaving your home.
b) An emergency stop button. As I already mentioned, this feature is available in most decent treadmills.
c) Option to increase the speed of your treadmill exercise, so that you can walk, jog, or run simply by increasing the equipment’s speed. Now, whoever said that jogging or running has to be hard and boring – you can do it all within the comfort of your home.
Remember that it is never too late to begin. Go grab a medical treadmill for yourself and start exercising earnestly.