The treadmill is one of many types of cardiovascular training equipment. Not only will treadmill exercise reduce your weight, but it will also improve your aerobic capacity. This lends handy to your daily life. For example, when you have to walk up numerous flights of stairs to get to your seat at a sporting event, your lungs will have more strength and you will not feel as winded. Learn proper technique before using the treadmill regularly.
Step 1
Move your body through a series of dynamic stretches before exercising. This will get your muscles and joints adapted to movement patterns that take place on the treadmill. If you do not loosen up, you run the risk of suffering a connective tissue injury. Arm crosses, arm circles, leg swings, spinal rotations, shoulder shrugs, alternating toe touches, ankle bounces and reverse lunges are examples.
Step 2
Step onto the sides of the belt and turn the machine on. Hit the "Start" button and let the belt start moving. Place your hands on the handrails, gently step onto the belt one foot at a time and start walking. Release your hands from the handrails and keep them off for the duration of your workout.
Step 3
Increase your pace gradually until you reach five minutes. This will slowly elevate your core body temperature without causing a major shock to your system. Get to a point where you are walking briskly or jogging lightly.
Step 4
Perform your workout. Increase the speed to a point where you are breathing heavily and sweating. Remain at this pace for the duration of your workout. Hit the up arrows to increase your speed or type in a numerical value on the keypad and hit "Enter." Your speed will automatically increase to whatever you select.
Step 5
Exercise long enough to lose weight. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 60 to 90 minutes of cardio, five days a week to lose weight. Follow these guidelines every week to see the best results. Exercise more than once a day if you cannot fit your workout into one continuous session.
Step 6
Reduce your speed to cool your body down. Do your cool-down the opposite way you did your warm-up. Decrease your speed slowly through a five-minute span of time. Get to a point where you are just walking at a comfortable pace.
Step 7
Change up your workouts by adding in high intensity intervals. Interval training is simply alternating bursts of intense activity with intervals of lighter activity according to the Mayo Clinic. Start with a light warm-up, run or walk fast for 30 seconds, then jog or walk slowly for 60 seconds.
Alternate back and forth for your whole workout and do a light jog or walk to cool-down. Devote a whole training session to interval training or mix 10- to 20-minute bouts of interval training in with your existing workouts. If you just do interval training, keep your exercise time to 30 minutes or less due to its intensity.
Tips and Warnings
- Treadmills also come equipped with an incline feature. As you adapt to your workouts, increase your incline to challenge yourself and increase your caloric expenditure. This will also place more emphasis on your leg muscles. You can also use the incline with your intervals. Increase it for your high intensity bouts and decrease it for your low intensity bouts.
Member Comments