The constant thud underneath your feet, the constrained space, and the monotony of going nowhere fast. It feels like hours have gone by, but it's only been eleven minutes, and you wonder, "Why am I torturing myself? This thing has got to be considered a cruel and unusual punishment."
Neprestani zamolkli udarci pod tvojimi nogami, omejen prostor in monotonost premikanja na mestu. Zdi se, da so pretekle že ure, pa vendar je minilo šele enajst minut in sprašuješ se: "Zakaj se mučim? To se zdi kot kruta in nenavadna kazen."
Actually, that's exactly what it is, or was. You see, in the 1800s, treadmills were created to punish English prisoners.
V bistvu pa to dejansko drži, oziroma je držalo. Vidite, okoli leta 1800 so tekalno stezo izumili, da bi kaznovali angleške zapornike.
At the time, the English prison system was abysmally bad. Execution and deportation were often the punishments of choice, and those who were locked away faced hours of solitude in filthy cells. So social movements led by religious groups, philanthropies, and celebrities, like Charles Dickens, sought to change these dire conditions and help reform the prisoners.
Takrat je bil angleški kaznilniški sistem grozljiv. Najpogostejši kazni sta bili usmrtitev in izgon, tisti, ki so bili za rešetkami, pa so cele ure presedeli v osami v umazanih kletkah. Družbena gibanja, ki so jih vodile verske skupine, filantropi in znane osebnosti, kot Charles Dickens, so si prizadevala spremeniti te grozljive pogoje in reformirati zapornike.
When their movement succeeded, entire prisons were remodeled and new forms of rehabilitation, such as the treadmill, were introduced.
Po zaslugi tega gibanja so bili zapori v celoti preurejeni in uvedene nove oblike rehabilitacije, kot na primer tekalna steza.
Here's how the original version, invented in 1818 by English engineer Sir William Cubitt, worked. Prisoners stepped on 24 spokes of a large paddle wheel. As the wheel turned, the prisoner was forced to keep stepping up or risk falling off, similar to modern stepper machines. Meanwhile, the rotation made gears pump out water, crush grain, or power mills, which is where the name "treadmill" originated.
Takole je delovala originalna različica, ki jo je izumil angleški inženir, Sir William Cubitt. Zaporniki so stopali na 24 prečk na velikem lopatnem kolesu. Ko se je kolo obračalo, je moral zapornik stopiti na višjo prečko, ali pa tvegati padec, podobno kot pri modernih steperjih. Medtem pa je obračanje kolesa črpalo vodo, mlelo žito ali poganjalo mline. Od tod prihaja tudi originalno ime, ki pomeni "stopajoči mlin."
These devices were seen as a fantastic way of whipping prisoners into shape, and that added benefit of powering mills helped to rebuild a British economy decimated by the Napoleonic Wars. It was a win for all concerned, except the prisoners.
Verjeli so, da so bile te naprave čudovit način za krotenje zapornikov, dodatna prednost poganjanja mlinov pa je pomagala obnoviti britansko gospodarstvo, ki so jo zdesetkale Napoleonske vojne. To je bil uspeh za vse udeležene, razen za zapornike.
It's estimated that, on average, prisoners spent six or so hours a day on treadmills, the equivalent of climbing 5,000 to 14,000 feet. 14,000 feet is roughly Mount Everest's halfway point. Imagine doing that five days a week with little food.
Ocenjujemo, da so zaporniki preživeli v povprečju 6 ur na dan na tekoči stezi, kar ustreza vzponu od 1.524 m do 4.267 m. 4.267 m je približno polovica višine Mount Everesta. Predstavljajte si, da to počnete 5 dni v tednu, z zelo borno prehrano.
Cubitt's idea quickly spread across the British Empire and America. Within a decade of its creation, over 50 English prisons boasted a treadmill, and America, a similar amount.
Cubittova ideja se je hitro razširila po Britanskem imperiju in v Ameriko. Desetletje po njenem odkritju, je imelo več kot 50 angleških zaporov tekalno stezo in podobno število tudi v Ameriki.
Unsurprisingly, the exertion combined with poor nutrition saw many prisoners suffer breakdowns and injuries, not that prison guards seemed to care. In 1824, New York prison guard James Hardie credited the device with taming his more boisterous inmates, writing that the "monotonous steadiness, and not its severity...constitutes its terror," a quote many still agree with.
Nepresenetljivo sta napor in slaba prehrana povzročila številne poškodbe in živčne zlome zapornikov. Vendar paznikom ni bilo mar. Leta 1824 je newyorški paznik James Hardie napravi pripisal zaslugo za ukrotitev tudi najbolj uporniških zapornikov, ko je zapisal, da je: "monotona konstantnost in ne neizprosnost tisto, kar jo naredi tako grozno," s čimer se mnogi še danes strinjajo.
And treadmills lasted in England until the late 19th century, when they were banned for being excessively cruel under the Prison's Act of 1898.
Tekalne steze so se v Angliji obdržale do konca 19. stoletja, ko so jih leta 1898 v Zakonu o zaporih prepovedali zaradi njihove prekomerne krutosti.
But of course the torture device returned with a vengeance, this time targeting the unsuspecting public. In 1911, a treadmill patent was registered in the U.S., and by 1952, the forerunner for today's modern treadmill had been created.
Ampak ta mučilna naprava je seveda doživela svoj preporod, tokrat namenjena nič hudega sluteči javnosti. Leta 1911 je bil v ZDA registriran patent za tekalno tezo in do leta 1952 je bila že ustvarjena predhodnica moderne tekalne steze.
When the jogging craze hit the U.S. in the 1970s, the treadmill was thrust back into the limelight as an easy and convenient way to improve aerobic fitness, and lose unwanted pounds, which, to be fair, it's pretty good at doing. And the machine has maintained its popularity since.
S porastom priljubljenosti jogginga v ZDA v 70. letih, je bila tekalna steza znova v središču pozornosti, kot preprost in prikladen način za izboljšanje aerobne kondicije in izgubo odvečnih kilogramov. Pri čemer, moramo priznati, je tudi zelo uspešna. Naprava je ohranila svojo priljubljenost vse do danes.
So the next time you voluntarily subject yourself to what was once a cruel and unusual punishment, just be glad you can control when you'll hop off.
Ko se naslednjič prostovoljno podvržete nečemu, kar je nekoč veljalo za kruto in nenavadno kazen, bodite veseli, da lahko nadzorujete, kdaj boste skočili dol.