01 Feb Ten reasons to really appreciate your treadmill this winter

Stuck inside during the cold winter months?
It’s not as bad as you think for people who have a treadmill to exercise on.
Here are 10 reasons to really appreciate your treadmill – and avoid developing a case of cabin fever.

1. Let it snow, let is snow, let it snow – It’s OK because people who have a treadmill can get great workouts in in the comfort of their own home year-round.
2. Control your climate – It may be 10 degrees, snowing, icy and extremely windy outside, but that hardly matters to you inside on your treadmill. Control the climate with a turn of the thermostat.
3. Wear what you want – There’s no more worrying about layering to beat the cold and lots of laundry after running outdoors in the winter. Where what you want to on the comfort of your own treadmill.
4. Run when you want to – With a treadmill, it’s “go time” anytime you want. There’s no more trying to rush to get your run completed before daylight is gone.
5. Give the babysitter the afternoon off – If you have a treadmill in your house, pop the kids down with some games and books while you get your workout in. You don’t have to find someone to watch the kids, or worse yet try to push a 40-pound stroller.
6. Be sure of your pace – With the treadmill, you can program it for exactly the workout you want. Then your feet have no choice but to keep pace with the belt.
7. Hills when you want them – If you want hills, the treadmill can give them to you. As early and often as you like. Set the incline however you want it.
8. Eliminate the shock – One of the best features in my book about a treadmill is that if you get the right cushioning, it can take away a lot of the pounding on your body that outside running delivers.
9. A reliable surface – You know exactly what to expect each time you pick them up and put them down on a treadmill, unlike the uneven surface you might encounter running on the local side street. (Oh no, was that my ankle that just twisted into a pot hole?!)
10. You watched an hour of “King of Queens” re-runs- and that’s OK (Or, for ladies, you watched the same Sex and the City episode for the fifth time – and that’s OK) – If you watched your favorite show while getting a great treadmill workout, that’s not wasted time at all.
Way to go!