Treadmill running vs treadmill hill walking: the impact on ventilatory and thoraco-abdominal patterns

Treadmills may have an incline feature to mimic walking uphill, giving the possibility to change the type of workout or add higher intensity intervals by getting the heart rate and breathing up to a higher level at lower speeds. We aimed to compare the impact of 5 min of running and uphill walking on the treadmill on the breathing pattern of 7 healthy males (median age:24 yrs). The subjects performed 3 tasks: 1) walking at a speed of 4.5 km/h with a 12% incline (U12); 2) running at 8 km/h at zero incline (R08) and 3) running at 10 km/h at zero incline (R10). The last 90" were analyzed. Minute ventilation increases with increasing speed, because of augmented respiratory rate. Tidal volume was achieved with the ribcage independently on the three tasks (U12: 62%; R08: 64%; R10: 63%, p=0.96). The respiratory perceived exertion (RPE breaths) was higher during R10 with no difference for leg muscles. The heart rate was higher at R10 and similar between U12 and R08 (Figure1). Treadmill hill walking has important cardiopulmonary stimuli: although speed is lower, the volume expansion was similar to running but with lower frequency resulting in lower ventilation, while the heart rate increased similarly to R08. Compared to running, treadmill hill walking is an interesting alternative workout with a similar effect on heart rate but less ventilation and less impact on the joints of the lower limb and the spine. <fig><object-id>erj;64/suppl_68/PA1588/F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><graphic></graphic></fig>