If you exercise often on the treadmill and want ways to challenge your body so that you can lose weight, read my tips. Doing the same treadmill workouts everyday can keep you from continued results. If you switch up your workouts with new challenges you will see greater weight loss and health results. Do you vary your treadmill workouts? If not, here are the ways to challenge your body while on the treadmill:
If you do interval training on the treadmill you can elevate your heart rate and increase the calories you expend. To get the most out of your interval training workout, walk or jog for 3 minutes, then slowly jog or walk for 4 minutes. Repeat for 3-5 times to get a great workout. This is one of the best ways to challenge your body while on the treadmill.
World class marathoner Jeff Galloway guides runners to run for nine minutes then walk for one. This training method will give your heart rate a break in the walk and push you to a challenge in the run. Some runners find that they yield an even quicker time by following this method, than if they were to run the entire distance.
Are you finding yourself bored of the same treadmill workout? Push yourself to bring out your inner athlete and perform a speed workout. Challenge yourself with mile repeats where you sprint a mile and jog a half mile, then repeat for 3-4 times to get the most out of your challenging treadmill workout.
Hill training does not have to just be performed while outdoors, you can do a hill workout right on the treadmill. Increase the incline up to 4% and push yourself. I do not recommend going beyond 4% because this can often be bothersome to your back. However, if you find that running at 5-6% doesn't bother your back, then go for it!
Forget about the pace or the time and just go long. Get in a long run, jog or speed walk and challenge yourself to mega miles. I have run as many as 22 miles on the treadmill and the aftermath was a feeling of pure accomplishment. You do not have to go for 22 miles if you are not a distance runner, but you can push yourself to go long and burn a substantial amount of calories!
You have seen this on the Biggest Loser and other weight loss shows where the contestants manually make the treadmill move. Without having to plug in the treadmill or turn it on, run or speed walk by pushing the belt yourself. This is much more challenging but you will burn up to 20% more calories this way. So what are you waiting for?
With so many treadmill programs available, do they really challenge you? Absolutely, you can try one of the interval or hill training programs by just pressing a button right on your treadmill and choose the intensity from a 1-10 based on your own fitness level. Challenge yourself with a new treadmill program each week!
Hope you have enjoyed my tips on how you can challenge yourself with new treadmill workouts. So tell me, do you run solely on the treadmill or do you also run outdoors? What treadmill workouts do you do?