CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The gap has been bridged. No longer must runners and strength builders occupy opposite sides of the gym.
If said gym has a Thorotread, a new treadmill with a serious upper-body component, both types can work out to their heart's content, side by side. In fact, they might even get better results than they were getting before.
I hesitate to employ the word revolutionary, believing it overused. But there's really no better term to describe the effect Thorotread stands to have on the fitness arena. What it offers is nothing short of the best of both worlds, a truly whole-body workout few other pieces of equipment can match.
Too bad it's not more widely available, or for sale yet. Still in the prototype phase, the machine in Northeast Ohio can only be used at EB Fitness Club (ebfitnessclub.com), a new facility in the Flats East Bank cluster, whose general manager is actively engaged in the development of new equipment. Indeed, his gym boasts a whole array of machines I've never seen anywhere else.
Here's the Thorotread blueprint, the brainchild of inventor Joe Ellis.
Start with a high-end treadmill, one with a comfortable, extra-long deck and the dual ability to tilt downhill and run in reverse. Those features alone would make the thing worth noting.
But that's not what makes it interesting. Add to that a bar across the deck at chest level that glides forward and back, tethered to a resistance unit ranging from five to 45 pounds. I've never been one for holding things in my hands while running, but so smoothly does Thorotread's bar float in its track, clutching it soon came to feel natural.
Out of these variables, paired with the usual options with regard to speed, I found I could form any number of exercise combinations, all of them more demanding than traditional running. Ostensibly, the machine burns calories almost four times faster.
Stunning as that statistic is, it's not impossible to believe. After running just one mile at a pace normal for me, while also pumping 45 lbs., I was as fatigued and sweaty as if I'd gone much further. What's more, my arms were tired. The monitor said I'd burned 425 calories.
And that was just one setup. Others tired me out even more quickly.
Holding the bar steady at arm's length with the mill at a steep incline, I emulated Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a hill. By contrast, pulling the bar with bent arms while walking slowly backwards gave me the arm- and hamstring-burning sensation of dragging a heavy weight through some thick substance, like mud.
I also found ways of shaking things up by varying my grip, level of resistance, and pulsing pace. Tinkering around with these elements, I realized I could shift the focus from my chest to my biceps or shoulders, target my quadriceps, or lower the upper-body requirements to the bare minimum.
In case it's not obvious, I fell in love. As a runner, my biggest deficiency is upper-body strength. Most weightlifters, meanwhile, could use greater cardiovascular endurance. To both, Thorotread provides a solution that's elegant and effective.
Whether and when Thorotread goes to market remain open questions. Another biggie still up in the air? Price. Assuming the machine eventually hits the streets, however, and comes at a reasonable cost, Thorotread, like a pureblood racehorse, stands a very good chance of lapping the competition.