Treadmills were originally designed as prison punishment

"peculiarly irksome; requiring a severe exertion of the body, but furnishing no employment of the mind.”

My sentiments exactly! It doesn't surprise me at all that they were originally a punishment. I'm always complaining about the heat here, but the one advantage of living in Vietnam most of the year is that one is almost never compelled to do a workout on a treadmill. No snow or ice. About the only possible reason would be an illness or injury that made outdoor running problematic, or maybe torrential rain--but then one might not be able to get to the gym in the first place. Haven't been on one in almost two years.

haha -- that's funny.

Road running is just sooo much better...I only turn to the treadmill if it's a downpour, lightning, etc. I see people reading while on the treadmill, they aren't running, but walking a pretty brisk pace, and I'm astounded that they can multi task like that. lol

Prisons back in the day were also notorious for feeding lobster to the inmates, because they were considered insects of the sea. By law however, the prisons were only allowed to feed them lobster twice a week because it was deemed too cruel.

I watched the entire series of Sons of Anarchy on the dreadmill. It was great. But the 45 minutes for a show was about my limit.

For as much as a treadmill sucks, i did have one kinda cool experience with them. Our gym got these treadmills that had a video screen that would play a video taken from the point of view of someone running in a different beautiful place around the world. It took a little imagination, but it actually was pretty cool to mentally leave the hot stink of the gym and feel like I was running through the swiss alps or national parks of the US. It helped pass the time a hell of a lot better than listening to music.