To determine the amount and type of exercise appropriate for you, your doctor may want you to use a treadmill with an electrocardiogram (EKG). Treadmills with EKG will reveal more specific information about your heart functions than an EKG used while you are at rest. The EKG reads electrical signals sent from your heart to determine your heart rate, rhythm and strength.
Step 1
Attach the EKG electrodes to your chest, upper arms and upper thighs. They should have labels RA, LA, LL and V1 through V6. Attach the RA and LA electrodes to your upper left and right arms. Attach the LL electrode to your upper left leg. Attach the V1 electrode slightly to the right of your sternum. Attach the V2 electrode slightly on the other side of your sternum. Attach the remaining electrodes in a horizontal, numerically ordered line directly following the V2 electrode. This will leave the V6 electrode near your left armpit.
Step 2
Begin walking on the treadmill as normal.
Step 3
Continue walking on the treadmill for at least ten minutes. If you feel tired or have chest pain before 10 minutes have elapsed, stop walking.
Step 4
Collect your results from the EKG machine. The machine will print results as you walk on the treadmill. Once you stop walking on the treadmill, your final results will be available. Unless you are trained to read EKG results, you will need to take your results to a doctor or another trained professional to analyze them.
