RENT A TROWBRIDGE APARTMENT
AND WE'LL THROW IN A CHEF,
A MAID AND A DRIVER.
Ski Machines
Vs. Treadmills
±4
toori' .t.31i
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24111 CIVIC CENTER DRIVE
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(810) 352-0208
THE DETRO
hanges
Single, whether by choice or by chance, you face unique
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goals and needs are as unique as your finger prints. Like
financial success, a life plan may require charting a special
path to lifelong social, intellectual and spiritual growth.
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special places to be. As you plan for life's
changes, THE FOUNTAINS is a great place
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*A unique rental community for
Shattering Expectations
74 sO
individuals age 62 and up.
28301 Franklin Road • Southfield, Michigan 48034 • (810) 353-2810 THE AT FOUNTAINS
FRANKLIN
hen a widely cited
study last May identi-
fied the treadmill as
the best machine for
getting lean, devotees of a cer-
tain cross-country ski device
were sort of stopped in their
tracks.
Now, though, scientific argu-
ments from the people at Nor-
dicTrack are beginning to
snowball.
All of them, carefully docu-
mented for media consumption,
seem to support the manufac-
turer's long-held claim: A cross-
country ski machine can provide
a better total workout than mo-
torized treadmills, stationary
bikes or stair-steppers.
The latest study, conducted
at the University of Pittsburgh,
found that exercising on a ski
machine at levels from "light" to
"hard" burned the same amount
of calories as working out on a
treadmill.
When exercise subjects in the
Pittsburgh study rated their ex-
ertion levels as "light," the per-
centage of maximum heart rate
achieved on the ski machine and
treadmill differed: 85 percent on
the ski machine, 79 percent on
the treadmill.
The higher heart rate at this
level of exertion shows that the
ski-machine workout was more
demanding without necessarily
being perceived as such by the
exerciser.
"With a cross-country ski ma-
chine, people exercise both their
upper and lower bodies instead
of isolating one part or the oth-
er," pointed out Dr. Paul Thomp-
son, director of preventive
cardiology at the University of
Pittsburgh.
"Subjects in our study pro-
duced more lactic acid (a fatigue
producer) in cross-country ski-
ing than on the treadmill, sug-
gesting that the skier produces
a greater metabolic demand,"
Thompson said.
Thompson's research was in
response to a study published
last May in the Journal of the
American Medical Association.
That study compared calorie
expenditure at various levels of
exertion. Conducted at the Med-
ical College of Wisconsin and the
Milwaukee VA Medical Center,
it found that an hour on the
treadmill burned 40 percent
more calories than a stationary-
bike workout of the same dura-
tion.
No surprise there, inasmuch
as walking and jogging are
weight-bearing, gravity-chal-
lenging activities. The surprise
was that the same level of effort
—"somewhat hard"—resulted in
a calorie expenditure of 700 on
the treadmill, compared with
595 on a cross-country ski ma-
chine.
Could it be that the treadmills
were more user-friendly? And
that the 13 young volunteers in
the Wisconsin study had diffi-
culty mastering the technique
of the ski machines?
Those factors can influence
not only a study, but a potential
consumer as well.
While you can pretty much
walk and jog mindlessly on a
treadmill, ski machines require
a certain degree of timing, con-
centration and coordination. As
your feet glide back and forth on
roller-mounted boards or foot
pads, your hands grip poles that
pivot or handles that are con-
nected to a rope and pulley.
In any event, the Pittsburgh
research involved performing
two maximal exercise tests on
each machine in order for study
participants to better evaluate
perceived rates of exertion.
This procedure was not per-
formed before the JAMA study,
said the Pittsburgh researchers.
To what extent this validates
either study is open to debate.
But Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the
famed founder of the Institute
of Aerobic Research in Dallas, is
partial to the ski machine.
"Cross-country skiing is with-
out a doubt the best cardiovas-
cular exercise," says Cooper.
"Because the NordicTrack total-
body workout so accurately sim-
ulates this superior exercise, it
provides the same unequaled
aerobic benefits." II
Copley News Service
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