




05
Let me preface this post by saying that I think this is a really, really bad idea, for more reasons that I have time to delve into today, but for starters, here are three:
1. If you think treadmills suck, you aren’t alone. I like to run outdoors. Period. Running on a treadmill is about as much fun as, well, sticking needles in my eyes, but it is a torture I must endure if I have to get a workout in and the only childcare option is my gym’s childcare room. That said, I can think of nothing more ridiculous that Twittering while you run. There are televisions, iPods, and lots of people to look at. Surely, for even twenty minutes you can disconnect yourself from the rest of the world and just run, right? I have the attention span of a flea, and I can manage twenty minutes. Seriously – part of the point of a workout is to focus on YOU by taking a time out from the world.
2. The more “gadgets” a piece of cardio equipment has is directly proportional to the odds the machine can inflict serious harm. Having fallen off a treadmill before, I can promise you, it smarts. And is extremely embarrassing. My opinion is that when you are on a piece of equipment that has the power to toss a four hundred pound football player across a room, you best pay attention to your workout. Tweet about it when you get home.
3. The more focused you are on your workout, the more effective the workout will be. Distraction has a time and place, but during a workout, I think – no, I KNOW, you get more bang for your buck if you pay attention. Go back and read, “The Devil is in the details,”where I talked about the little things that make a workout so much more effective. Nowhere on that list did I mention, “make sure you Tweet about your max heart rate or mph.”
And what spawned this rant, you ask? Check it out here – interactive workouts by Netpulse.