Treadmills are the ideal exercise machines for people willing to start their fitness journey. Treadmills are easy to use and put less stress on the body than other workouts. Experts recommend doing treadmill workouts at least 5 times a week for an average of 30 to 60 minutes.
If you are short on time or don’t like spending a lot of time on workouts, you can still lose a lot of calories. Here are some effective treadmills workouts that will help you stay healthy.
- Slow Walk
Establish a baseline for a slow walk. Do this walk as a casual stroll at a steady speed for about 15 minutes. Try out the 2.3 to 3.5 baseline depending upon how often you walk, how comfortable you feel, and the length of your legs. Your 15 minutes treadmill walk at a consistent pace is also considered a workout.
If you are a runner, then set it to your jogging speed which will be faster. Pick the speed according to your capacity in which you can easily walk for at least 30 minutes. Remember, the speed varies from day to day depending upon how tired or energetic you are.
- 30-second Sprint intervals
While doing this speed, workout time will fly, and you will be soaked in sweat at the end of the workout. If it’s your first time doing speed work, make sure you are following the rules of speed training.
- Set the incline of your treadmill at 1%. Start the workout by walking at a slow but steady pace for around 2 minutes. Warm-up your body with easy jogging for about 5 minutes. Try to be at a conversational pace. It will make your muscles warm and blood pumping, prepared for a workout.
- Slightly up the pace to heavy breathing for 30 seconds. Recover from it with 90 seconds of easy jog.
- Repeat the sprint and recovery intervals 9 more times, and it will be 18 minutes in total.
- Finish the exercise with a 4-minute easy pace; cool down jog, or maybe a brisk walk.
Treadmill total time: 30 minutes
- Sidestepping workout
In this workout, there is a combination of running and walking, and to work your quads and glutes, walk with some gold old side shuffles.
- Set your treadmills at 1% incline. Warm-up your body by walking at an easy and steady pace for 2 minutes. Continue to warm up the body by easy jogging for about 5 minutes.
- Return to your easy walking pace, and then turn your body to the side once you hold on to the side rail. Side shuffle your feet after getting into the low squat position. Don’t try to be overconfident and cross one foot over the other. Continue your side stepping for at least 30 seconds and then return to walking forward.
- Lift your pace to a conversational and easy running pace for 2 minutes. Bring the pace down to walking to do side shuffles on the side.
- Continue it with 2 minutes of easy running pace and at least 30 seconds of side shuffle till you complete your 20 minutes. Alternate your sides according to the time.
- End the exercise by doing a 5 minute cool down at an easy rate.
Total treadmill time: 30 minutes
- Walk the Hills/ Run the Flats
If you like to alternate between walking and running, this is the ideal workout. This treadmill workout will work your glutes with the hills.
- Start this workout by warming up your body by brisk walking or easy jogging at a 1% incline.
- Walk for 1 minute by increasing the incline to 2 minutes.
- Lower the incline again to 1% and run at a slow pace for 1 minute.
- Walk for 2 minutes by increasing the incline to 3%.
- Lower the incline to 1% and run at an easy pace for 3 minutes.
- Walk around 3 minutes by increasing the incline by 4%.
- Again low the incline to 1% and run at a pace for 4 minutes.
- Finish the exercise with a five-minute brisk walking and easy jogging.
Treadmill time: 30 minutes
- Calorie-Blasting Pyramid Workout
This workout is highly beneficial in burning many calories and accelerating weight loss. This treadmill workout combines walking and running intervals. Start the exercise by doing a 3 minute warm-up of brisk walking. Set the treadmill at a 1% incline and follow the following gap:
- 30-second medium speedrunning/30-second walk
- 1-minute medium speed running/1-minute walk
- 2-minute medium speed running/1-minute walk
- 3-minute medium speed running/1-minute walk
- 4-minute medium speed running/1-minute walk
- 3-minute sprinting /1-minute walk
- 2-minute sprinting /1-minute walk
- 1-minute sprinting/1-minute walk
- 30-second sprinting /30-second walk
Finish the workout with a 2-minute cooldown of easy jogging and brisk walking.
Total treadmill time: 30 minutes.
Treadmill workout’s health benefits
As compared to regular exercises, treadmill workouts are far more beneficial. Treadmill workouts benefit heart strength, decrease insulin resistance, and accelerate weight loss. Even when we compare walking and running on a treadmill with some simple workouts, it puts less stress on our bodies. For heart and blood pressure patients, the latest treadmills come with a feature to monitor blood pressure and heart rate.
This feature benefits in determining the level of exercise they can easily handle and tell them when to stop. Treadmill workouts are ideal for diabetic patients. For type 2 diabetic patients, it is vital to control the insulin levels in the body, and treadmills play a vital role in encouraging diabetic patients to exercise regularly.
According to a study in the Indian Journal of Clinical Biochemistry, daily exercise benefits in maintaining blood sugar level in diabetic patients that aren’t dependent on insulin. The ideal way to control the sugar level is by daily exercise with a controlled diet.