Treadmills can be very effective workout machines, but you have to know what you’re doing. To quickly get this out of the way, you have to promise never to do steady state cardio… unless you are training for a 10k race of something. But our goal here is to lose body fat and get in shape.

Steady state cardio means you are running at the same pace for a longer period of time. Most women tend to be doing this during their workout. This is really bad for you because your body is so efficient, it’s will get used to the workout fast. In about two weeks.

When that happens, it won’t be burning calories from fat because it will start to store fat for energy to burn later. After all your body sees this run as nothing new. Not to mention that you aren’t building any lean muscle mass and if your not using resistance training, you could actually be losing it. That just packs on fat faster.

What you’re going to do is interval training. Interval training means you’re going to be running slowly… almost walking, and then you’ll speed up to a sprint or fast jog. There are actually many variations you can do.

This is very effective because it slows your heart rate and then spikes your heart rate. This confuses your body and forces it into different types of energy use. It also forces your body to use it’s muscles in short bursts which builds lean muscle.

When your just slowly jogging, your heart rate is slow and you are using oxygen for energy and your body is trying to recover. But when you go fast, you use a different energy source that comes from your muscles working in short bursts. This helps to build your learn muscle mass which will burn your fat.

The great thing about interval training is is doesn’t have to last a long time. In fact, you can get a very great workout in just 20 minutes. But it’s not like one interval workout will last you forever. Like we mentioned before, your body is very efficient and will eventually get the hang of it. So to help keep the results coming and to keep you from boredom… change your workout at least every 4 weeks.

I also encourage you to track your workouts every week while you do one workout schedule. It’s important to watch your progression so you know how hard to push yourself. And seeing progress is one of the best motivators.