why a treadmill feels like prison

Ever wonder why a treadmill feels like a medieval torture device? No? Well I do. We've all spent countless hours on that incessant machine, whiling away our time and spending most of it watching the seconds tick past tirelessly slow.  But where did the term treadmill come from and why do we sometimes want to smash it with a rock? The answer dates back to the early 1800's when Sir William Cubitt, an English engineer, decided this would be a novel way to rehabilitate prisoners. It was collectively known as a treadwheel and looked like a giant hamster wheel, with climbing the equivalent of a small mountain as punishment. Someone finally got the bright idea this technique could be used more efficiently and the prisoners began to use the contraption to grind grain in a mill, hence the term treadmill. It wasn't until the late 1960's when Dr. Kenneth Cooper (of the Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas, and in existence to this day) brought the treadmill to the masses with his research on the benefits of aerobic exercise. So now when your puffing away those pounds on the endless belt that never stops, just remember, it could be worse.