Coaching

Getting the Most From Your Treadmill Incline Feature

Let’s make the most of that treadmill workout with Power Incline!

You already know that you can increase the intensity of your treadmill workouts by running faster, but what you may not know is the many benefits of changing the treadmill  incline setting on this popular piece of home fitness equipment. If you’re working out with a goal of losing fat, increasing your treadmill incline level is one of the most effective workouts around. Upping your incline lets you bring your heart rate into your target zone, without increasing impact on your joints and muscles. Some research even suggests that treadmill incline training is a more effective means of specifically burning fat during your workouts, due to its unique ability to increase intensity while maintaining a slower pace. To benefit from this approach, stick to a slow to moderate speed (something around 3 mph) and intersperse periods of high incline with lower periods of recovery–or just stick to a high incline for your entire workout and focus on building endurance. For experienced runners and hikers, increasing the treadmill incline improves your endurance and mimics the varied terrain of outdoor activities. By alternating increased incline with level terrain, you can specifically strengthen your quads and glutes to handle outdoor hills, without jarring your knees and back on the way down. These workouts should include running or walking at your regular pace, alternating level recovery periods with bursts of increased effort as you tackle hills. For every fitness level, increasing your incline is a lower impact way of increasing the intensity of your workout. It can also help you to burn fat and build muscle in a way that is unique to hill workouts. Whether you choose to use your treadmill for running or walking, you’ve got a lot to gain by leveling up.
Image
Learn more about Joli on the Meet Our Writers Page.