Have you discovered that when walking on your home treadmill, one of your feet “drags,” that is, you can tell it’s making more contact with the belt than your other foot is?
Are you worried this could mean a neurological problem, like foot drop?
Perhaps you first noticed what seems to be a mild dragging when you realized that only that foot makes more of a sliding noise on the tread than does the other foot.
You may think this suggests a very subtle foot drop or not as much control of the ankle flexion as with the other foot.
Before you let health anxiety get the best of you, there is a very logical and benign explanation for this.
When I myself began noticing that my left foot was making more contact with the belt of my treadmill desk than was my right foot, I first thought it was a floppier slipper.
I have several pairs of the same type of slipper. But when I used different pairs, the observation persisted.
I then walked on my regular treadmill and listened to see if I was hearing the “scraping” of the bottom of the slipper.
I actually heard this only when I wore the slippers.
So on the regular treadmill, I didn’t hear the gliding.
I then realized that maybe the treadmill desk wasn’t perfectly level or horizontal.
There could’ve been an unevenness in the floor that caused a very subtle tilt in the machine, just enough to make heavier contact or alter the foot-strike mechanics of my left foot.
Imagine walking on a very slightly tilted but flat surface. The foot that’s on the higher part of the surface is going to have more contact.
I slipped an acoustic panel under the right side of the machine, then gave it a test walk. BINGO! The sliding sound was gone, and in fact, the belt sounded more smooth.
The treadmill had been slightly tilted, due to an uneven floor.
And that’s precisely what might be going on with your treadmill, even though you could swear that your floor is perfectly even.
I actually think that the problem might be more with the machine than my floor, because in the three places I’ve lived since I purchased this particular machine, I’ve heard that extra gliding, always thinking it was just the way the left slipper was fitting on my foot (my feet are not the same size).
But finally, the shuffling sound of the slipper bottom on the tread surface began getting annoying; I never heard it when I wore sneakers.
So if you’ve been experiencing something similar and swear it can’t be your floor, then it could be the machine itself; an unevenly built treadmill.
See what happens when you slip an acoustic panel or several stacked paper plates under the side opposite the foot that seems to be “dragging.”
