I have been a truck driver for 6 year’s and just recently found a fold up treadmill that fits in my truck. The only problem I am finding is I need to hold on to the hand rail’s, which they say is wrong, and it give’s me a false workout. I also find that the incline it has, I have to take breaks more often than walking flat. I had been walking 1 mile before I got the treadmill, and I could finish that in one walk, this takes me a while, and I am just wondering if this is normal?
I am using a manual treadmill, and when I walked 1 mile it was only around my truck, I had calculated it up so that I needed to walk around the entire truck 31 times = 1 mile. This I could do all at once without any breaks, but the incline seems to be different, I run out of breath quicker, and my heart pounds really bad, so I have been doing .5 segment’s.every .5 i take a break and let me catch my breath and heart calm down. I just want to know if I am doing this correctly, or not?

Using a motorized treadmill with no incline, you may burn fewer calories per mile than you do outdoors. The moving tread does some of the work for you, and you have no wind resistance. According to research, you can overcome these by adding a slight incline, as little as 1%.

Walking outside has its biggest advantage in challenging your balance and stability with all of the small obstacles, dodges, starts and stops. This will give you an advantage for distance walking as well as overall health as we age — maintaining our stabilizing muscles. Here is what you face walking outside vs. on a treadmill:

* Up and down curbs, steps, short stairways, and stepping over small obstacles. A little workout for your climbing muscles.
* Sloped sidewalks and road sides. A challenge to your balance muscles.
* Dodging people, puddles, and poodles. A challenge to move side-to-side as well as forward.
* Stops and starts at street crossings. A challenge to the muscles to come to a halt and to start from zero.
* Treadmills only go uphill or level, only very rare models have downhill incline. Going downhill challenges muscles in a completely different way.
* On the treadmill, the tread is moving and you may not be giving yourself a good push off with your back foot. Concentrate on doing this correctly on the treadmill.

Distance Training Outdoors vs. Treadmill
I recommend doing outside long distance mileage when training for a 10K, half marathon or marathon, rather than doing it all on the treadmill. Go ahead and use the treadmill for your within-week workouts of 30-60 minutes and to work on your walking posture and form. But for your long, slow distance mileage, do it outdoors.

On a longer distance event, your muscles will begin to tire and you will need to remind yourself often of good walking form. You end up with aches in odd places as you "recruit" different muscles when your usual walking muscles tire. Outdoors training is more likely to be using those muscles for balance, stability, ups and downs than the smooth ride of the treadmill. You will end up with fewer aches after your long distance events if you have been doing your long slow distance training outdoors.