Treadmills are one of the most used pieces of exercise equipment in the world. Designed to allow people to do the most basic of our movements at any time rain or shine, millions of people walk, jog and run away while the tread keeps turning.

I am not one of them.

Now, I do use treadmills from time to time, just not like most people do…https://youtu.be/asNH41nftbk

This is about a minute. I’ll take a minute break and repeat. After 10 rounds, I’ll have spent 20 minutes on the treadmill, have accumulated a couple minutes of pushing, 70-100 dips, 70-100 rows, a couple minutes of pulling and a heck of a better, more complex and stimulating workout than if I would have turned the treadmill on.

There’s value in everything so don’t take this as a sleight if you’re a treadmill junkie or even if you use it from time to time. Thinking outside the treadmill doesn’t always have to be this intense but I think we could benefit from spending a bit more of our treadmill time doing the work ourselves instead of it doing the work for us.