Does anybody actually attach this safety device to themselves while they’re on the treadmill?
Would it really make a fall off the back of the treadmill any less spectacular?
Anybody got any funny falling off the treadmill experiences?
Just curious.
not yet!
I usually wear it because there is very little room between the end of the treadmill and a wall and also very little room to the sides. If I did fall I wouldn’t want the tread to be running as it would be hard to get out of its way in a hurry. Plus, the treadmills have a TV so I might be more inclined to forget about what I’m doing and step on the edge. It does seem kind of dorky though.
At my old gym they had the back of the treadmills positioned about 3 feet from a mirrored wall.
This one guy was running at a pretty good clip,and he lost his footing.
He shot out the back,and cracked the mirror.Luckily he was OK.
Now if he had been running on the “Super Treadmill”,at 25 mph,and that happned he would have ended up in the ladies locker room.:-0
naturally, i fell off the treadmill. it happened at Terry Bryan’s Training Center.
i was going pretty good, and must have had low blood sugar or something because i honestly believed i could just up and land my feet on the sides while the thing was going. sure enough i jump up and BAM–flew right off the back into a stationary bike. it was a loud crash, and several of the guy’s came in and just looked down at me as Terry said, “JoAnne, what the hell are you doing in here? You alright?”
keep in mind Terry is about 300 pounds, and the other guys are huge muscular people. it was like having a herd of giants hover over me while i was crumpled up on the floor. the whole thing was very embarrassing.
plus the crash hurt like a bitch–my elbow and knee were bloody and my shorts were torn.
i got back up and finished my run on the treadmill. and have never fallen off since then!
I know all about looking dorky as I wear a helmet mirror on all outdoor rides. Not to mention the occasional polka dot jersey.
I sell treadmills, and I can tell you that 99% of the people do not use them. If you fall you will get spit off the back anyway. I would defenitely wear it if the back of the treadmill is against the wall (which it should not be).
Jeff
I was on travel in Denver so I took my hotel guest pass offer to the local athletic club. I was using a Precore treadmill and listening to my MP3 player, gradually increasing the speed as I warmed up to full trot. When the Ataris’ cover of Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” came on, I was inspired to crank up sound and the treadmill speed bigtime and was just flying on that until the song ended. Then I clicked the downspeed arrow and NO response at all. Oh &*^t!!! I lept onto the small exposed space under the grabbar on the left side and hit that emergency shutoff. After I unrattled I went to the front desk and reported that machine as out-of-order. That treadmill could have killed somebody! Phew! Now I think of that incident whenever I hear that song. 
Haha actually you end up on the side of the treadmill because they push you off. Luckily i’ve never experienced that but i’ve heard of a couple people that had at the place here. It really doesn’t happen that much because the person is most likely going to jump off before they get to that point. One girl was steping down from it though and slipped and landed on it. One of the owners was demostrating what happened when i got there and about did it himself it was pretty funny. The closest i’ve ever got to it was running with the sprint cords on and my foot got caught on one of them so i’m holding on and jumping on one foot until i could get off.
Grant
I don’t use it. So far, no trips off the back. Probably happen tomorrow now that I said that.
I don’t use it, but have accidentally hit it during a run which makes the treadmill immediately shut down. I hate that because I’m usually not paying attention to how far I’ve gone or how long I’ve been on it.
It’s just a matter of time before I’m shot off the back of a treadmill. If it’s embarassing and fitness-related, it’ll happen to me. I don’t even want to talk about everything that happened when I used to be into step aerobics.
I used to live in an apartment complex that had a fitness center. One night, a guy who lived downstairs from me was alone at the fitness center, running on the treadmill when he lost his footing and fell. He hit his head (not sure on what) and was knocked unconcious with his head and face coming to rest on the still-moving treadmill belt. The damage that was done to his face was simply horrifying.
Yes, I use my kill switch thingie.
Oh my goodness, that’s definitely a step up from embarassing.
I hit that stupid kill switch accidentally on a regular basis, sucks because it takes a while to get the thing reset and back up to speed. I have come close to falling off by putting my foot partly on the tread and partly on the side thing. I agree that it is just a matter of time for me also.
This video always makes me laugh: