Tone Up - Our Treadmill Workout
In their quest to boost their fitness, millions of people jump onto the treadmill, and then proceed to mindlessly pound away and tune out. The truth is that most of them are getting nowhere, literally. Not only are they physically staying in the same place, but their fitness isn’t progressing. The reason is simple – they aren’t working hard enough.
There is a better way. You’ve probably heard of high-intensity interval training. It’s been around for over a decade, but it has become hugely popular in the last few years. HIIT started out as a method of running on the track, but is now being applied to all sorts of types of training, including bodyweight and resistance exercises. In this article, we will focus on how you can apply HIIT training to your treadmill workout.
The HIIT Protocol
High Intensity Interval Training evolved out of the unique training methods that head coach of the Japanese Olympic Speed Skating team, Irisawa Koichi developed in 1996. Koichi had the athletes doing exercise on a cycle ergometer for extremely hard and fast 20 second sessions, followed by 10 seconds of rest. From this, a study emerged headed by Dr. Azumi Tabata. Today, HIIT training is commonly referred to as the Tabata Protocol.
Tabata's studies showed his subjects producing impressive results that make traditional (steady state) cardio seem ineffective by comparison. The system claimed worldwide interest and HIIT has now become one of the most popular ways to train.
The Benefits of HIIT Treadmill Training
1) Maximum fat loss – With HIIT, you will burn a lot of calories while you are training. But, you will burn even more calories after the workout. That’s because HIIT brings on the excess post oxygen consumption (EPOC) effect, which boosts your metabolism for 48 hours after your session.
2) Very little time required – From go to wo, your session will take 8 minutes (and half of that will be warming up/down). HIIT is, in fact, the most time effective cardio that exists.
3) Do it anywhere – You can do HIIT in the gym on the track or in your living room. That means that you no longer have any barriers – or excuses.
4) Lose weight, not muscle – HIIT training is intense. It will activate muscle tissue, engaging both your fast and slow twitch fibers. That means that you will retain your muscle tissue as you burn off the body fat.
The HIIT Treadmill Workout
Start your HIIT treadmill workout with a 2 minute warmup at a medium pace. This should be between 5 and 6.5 km/hour. Build up the speed over the last 30 seconds until, as soon as you hit the 2 minute mark, you are running at full capacity. During your warm-up get your mind prepared for the all out sprint that is about to take place.
Immediately the timer ticks over to 2 minutes, start your sprint. This should be a full out run. Imagine that you are being chased by a very hungry and very large dog! Run freely with your arms pumping at your sides.
Continue sprinting for exactly 20 seconds. Then throw your legs out to the sides of the treadmill running belt to allow yourself exactly 10 seconds of rest.
As soon as your 10 second rest time is up, jump back onto the treadmill for your second sprint. Your job now is to keep sprinting at the same intensity as you did on your first sprint.
Repeat this process until you have completed 8 rounds of sprints.
Once you have completed your 8th sprint, finish with a slow 2 minute warm down with the treadmill speed at 2.0-2.5 miles per hour.
Wrap Up
Your HIIT treadmill workout will take up all of 8 minutes, including your warm up and cool down. In that short period of time, you will be churning through a ton of calories while also boosting your metabolism so that you will also burn more calories for the next 24-36 hours. This type of treadmill workout will be a lot harder than the traditional slow, steady cardio workout that most people do, but it works - and, at the end of the day, that’s what really counts!
