Interval Training on the Treadmill

Are you on a mission to lose weight? If this is so and you are serious about it your workouts probably involve some sort of treadmill exercises. The treadmill can be a great machine to aid in your weight loss goals. Treadmill training is popular because of the fact that it is relatively easy to buy and install a treadmill at your home. Let’s say you get this brand new treadmill and are ready to begin your workout routines. You do a conventional treadmill workout for a couple weeks and are becoming bored with it. It now may be the time to start doing some interval training on treadmill type exercises.

Just by alternating the settings on your treadmill can give your muscles the variance and workout they need. In order for workouts to reach maximum effectiveness you must expose your muscles to different intensity levels within the same workout. Interval training on the treadmill accomplishes this goal. Try starting at your slow to moderate pace in your warm up and then increase the speed of the treadmill as you advance in the stages of the workout. By doing this you are performing a very basic interval type workout.

The key to any interval training on a treadmill is to vary not only the actual speed of the treadmill, but the incline and decline functions as well. Essentially your goal is to incorporate periods of both high intensity and low intensity within the same workout routine. With that said, there is no real standard interval treadmill training. Your workouts should be geared towards whatever you feel comfortable doing. We all work out with different goals in mind and those play the biggest role in determining how your specific interval training should be mapped out.

You will see that as you progress you will actually see yourself looking forward to your next treadmill routine with great anticipation. Why is this? This is because interval training on a treadmill is always changing and it is a natural human condition to be drawn to anything that is diverse and constantly changing rather than to be drawn to something that is very static and outright boring. After you see the results these workouts have as far as calories burned you will find yourself looking to get back on that treadmill as well.

Since any workout regimen is going to include a heavy dose of cardio type exercises you might as well make those parts of your workout as successful as possible. One of the great ways you can accomplish this is by interval training on treadmill type exercises. This type of training can be done at any time that you normally do your cardio workout, if you workout for 20 minutes, you could begin at a low intensity for 3 to 5 minutes then increase to at higher intensity for 3 to 5 minutes following this cycle for the entire workout. The time shown can be easily modified depending on your fitness level by decreasing or increasing the time for either low or high intensity.

What is good about this type of interval training, it can be used by the beginner or athlete who wants to increase their cardiovascular endurance or burn calories. As with all cardio exercises stay within your capabilities and do not exhaust yourself, stay within your target heart rate range to get the best benefit from interval training on the treadmill.