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The earliest Treadmills date back all the way to 1875, but it wasn't until the 1950s that they actually started to get used by humans. Up until the 1920s, they were designed only to be used by animals, making production more effective for contraptions like butter churns, wheels, and water pumps. It was when they started to appear on factory floors as conveyer belts - used to move parts and products with ease - that they began to turn heads.

First Treadmills

The first Treadmill intended for use by humans was designed as a stress test, assisting doctors of the time diagnose potential heart problems. It took very little time for investors and business types to realise that the Treadmill could be used as a commercially viable product, to allow exercise in the household and at the gym, and so the modern Treadmill was created.

Treadmills turned into an icon of futuristic living, satirised in science fiction pop culture as a way to alleviate the inconveniences walking to travel from place to place creates. As we move towards the future allowing machines to do more and more for us, the Treadmill - or conveyer belt in this sense - epitomises this. It is ironic then that we now use Treadmills more than ever to keep fit, and that keeping weight off is now a fashionable thing to do.

Treadmills of Today

Treadmills have progressed a lot since their origins; it's now easy to find an affordable Treadmill jam-packed with special features and built-in training programmes. Tunturi, now a well-known and reputed worldwide manufacturer of Treadmills and Fitness Equipment, started out as a bicycle-making business in Finland.

Treadmill Features

Some of the features modern Treadmills use include MP3 functionality, allowing you to plug in your MP3 Player and listen whilst you exercise, through built-in speakers. Integrated fans are also designed to keep Treadmill users cool throughout their training. On top of these luxurious comforts included are various technologies designed to actually bolster and support the user's workout, including orthopaedic belts or shock-absorbing running decks. A variety of speeds allow you to challenge yourself and open the Treadmill up to any standard of fitness. Storage has also been made easier as technology progresses, and they are now hugely accessible and affordable.

The Future of Treadmills

Future technologies are making the prospects of Treadmills all the more interesting. Anti Gravity Treadmills let the user workout inside a pressurised bubble that surrounds their body from the waist down, giving the sensation of running or walking through water. This sort of Treadmill would be advantageous for those undergoing rejuvenative physiotheraphy or who have joint problems. Vertical Treadmills are also being developed, which will let you climb up walls whilst remaining stationary and supported. Knobs grafted on to the Treadmill belt will let you grapple your way up, and, to top it all off, you get a full body workout!

Treadmills have changed and will continue to shape the way we live, and, as the world gets busier - and fatter - and the prospect of taking to the stars becomes more apparent, they've never been more relevant.