Treadmill History: A Winding Road

From spring-loaded handgrips to ThighBusters, exercise fads generally don't stick around long. So what is it about treadmills that has kept them the top exercise choice for 50 years?

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It probably wasn't the humble beginning. Treadmills preceded electricity, and as early as the mid 1800s they were a cheap source of energy. Dogs and sheep ran treadmills to churn butter, while horses on bigger machines powered mills and threshers.

In the 1950s a pair of heart researchers were inspired to use a commercial treadmill to create a controlled running environment, so they could test stress and learn more about heart and lung diseases. (One can only imagine it was easier than chasing subjects around the room with a clipboard.) It was a short hop of imagination to advance from testing health to improving it. The good doctors sold their exercise idea to Stairmaster, a company that thrived on refining the concept to benefit and satisfy its customers. Even NASA weighed in, seeing the need for astronauts to exercise safely in space. Their research trickled down from Skylab to Earth, further refining the technology. Then there was George Jetson running a treadmill in his futuristic cartoon, certifying that treadmills were the exercise of the future.

It's a bright future, too. Dozens of treadmill companies thrive today, with an estimated 45 million customers. From its humble start, this is an exercise phenomenon that definitely has legs.