Nautilus TreadClimber: 2x The Workout, 2x The Knee Pain

Filed Under Personal

Fitness is important to me, particularly after my experience working in Cardiology at the local hospital, so I go to the gym or swim most weekdays.

A number of new Nautilus Treadclimber cardio machines have been installed in the gym recently - and I’ve tried them out a few times.

The TreadClimber really does give you a great workout. I set the speed to 6km/hr and just use the standard program which sets the treadles to minimum for 3 minutes and then increases them to max for a further three minutes. So you vary between min and max treadle heights every three minutes.

Even though I’m pretty fit, 30 minutes doing that routine at that speed is quite challenging, and it might even come close to Nautilus’ claims about to “2x the workout”.

Last night, though, I was 10 minutes into the program and I started to feel a pain in my left knee. I had to stop running a few years ago because of a similar pain, so perhaps my old knee injury was being resurrected by the TreadClimber. I stopped and got off.

As I use a heart rate monitor I needed that level of intensity on the TreadClimber, so I didn’t feel that I was “over-doing it”. It must just be the combined horizontal and vertical movements of the treadles that doesn’t suit me. I don’t get problems on normal treadmills.

So the TreadClimber is an excellent cardio machine, but its not one I’ll use again, which is a shame.