Will Walking On A Treadmill Tighten Flab On The Legs?

Walking is considered a gentle and low-impact form of exercise, but that doesn't mean it won't change your body. Walking on a treadmill allows you to control the intensity of your workout by adjusting speed and incline. Using the treadmill and manipulating your workout intensity can help you tighten up flab on the legs.

Body Fat

Excess body fat is the cause of flab on your legs. This body fat lies below the surface of your skin and while it doesn't tighten up, you can reduce it with treadmill walking. It is important to exercise enough to change your body fat significantly. Since treadmill walking is cardiovascular exercise, perform it five to seven days per week for 30 to 60 minutes at each session. Keep your intensity moderate to high to burn the maximum amount of calories and fat from your body.

Improved Muscle Tone

Treadmill walking causes repeated muscular contraction in your legs. It uses your quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and even your glutes. During your walking workouts you are increasing the endurance of these muscles and improving their shape or tone. As your body fat decreases, your leg muscles become tighter and not as flabby. The rate at which this occurs will depend on your body and how fast you lose weight. But consistency is key and will show results.

Increasing Benefits

When you start any exercise program you want to allow your body to get used to the increased demands you are placing on it. Gradually you increase frequency and duration of workouts as well as intensity. Commonly people adjust speed, or pace, of walking to increase the intensity and get more benefit. However, if you add incline you increase the work that your legs have to do during your walk. This increases the amount of calories you burn and increases the challenge to your leg muscles to reduce your body fat and tighten the legs.

Considerations

If you really want to see improvement in the muscle tone of your legs, add resistance training exercises two to three days a week in addition to treadmill walking. Resistance training increases your lean muscle tissue and adds shape and definition. It will also help raise your metabolism to decrease body fat from your whole body, not just your legs. Perform one exercise for each major muscle group. Do one set of eight to 12 repetitions with a weight that is challenging. Take a day off between resistance-training sessions for the best results and to allow your muscles to recover.