You cannot do treadmill exercises if you do not know how to use a treadmill. It’s not rocket science, as most machines come with buttons that are clearly marked.
However, it’s better to know the functionalities of a treadmill and what the buttons mean before you start treadmill exercises.
How to Use a Treadmill?
A treadmill is a machine that helps with burning calories through various forms of cardio. It replicates the motion of walking, running, hill climbing and others.
First, you need to familiarise yourself with the machine you’re using. You need to know where the start and stop buttons are and whether or not the emergency stop works. It’s important to have a working emergency stop in case you need to abruptly stop if you feel dizzy or unwell.
Usually, treadmills come with an incline mode, enabling the platform to rise to various angles to replicate an upward hill walk. You can adjust the rate of the ascent. Some advanced treadmills come with various modes, such as fat burn, intense cardio, hill climb and others. These modes are set in a way that the work you do will raise your heart rate to a similar level.
Treadmills come with a pulse detector that lets you know what your approximate heart rate is. It’s usually at the handle bars, which are placed around the buttons for easy access. You can keep an eye out on the pulse meter to see what your heart rate is.
When you’re done, do not suddenly stop. You need to lower the incline and the speed, allowing your heart rate to slow down as well till you’ve reached a speed where you can get off the machine. Do not jump off the treadmill as soon as you’re done without slowing down.
Best Treadmill Exercises
You can do more than one type of workout on a treadmill. Here's a look at six such exercises:
1) Simple Walking
When you first start using the treadmill, you should stick to simple walking. Do not try to incline the platform or amp up the speed. This is the simplest movement on the list of treadmill exercises.
Ideally, you should start by simply walking and letting your body get used to the entire motion. Even though it’s exactly like walking, as you can control the speed, more often than not you’ll pick a speed that'll make you sweat but not breathless.
It’s better to let your body get used to that speed.
2) Incline Walk
Once you’ve done simple walking, you can start inclining the platform. The angle you choose depends on how manageable it is for you.
You can start with a high incline with a low speed or low incline with a higher speed. Regardless, the idea is to replicate a hill climb and allow the body to burn more calories due to the additional effort.
3) Running
The next step for treadmill exercises is running. Once you’ve done walking and hill climbing, you should focus on how to increase your heart rate further but within a healthy limit.
Running helps burn calories, as it takes effort. You do not have to run at a high speed for a long time. You should start with a simple jogging speed, and push it to a comfortable running speed that doesn’t leave you completely breathless.
However, you should be able to hold one-line conversations while doing it.
4) HIIT
The next step after you’ve walked and run on the treadmill are HIITs. These are high intensity interval training sessions. You’ll need to split the time between a 100% intese exercise followed by 20% effort to lower your heart rate slightly.
That means you to run fast for 30 seconds before slowing down and jogging for the next 30 seconds. That is one HIIT round. You should aim to do around eight to ten HIIT rounds per session.
5) Side Shuffles
While walking or running straight is one of the common treadmill exercises, side shuffles aren’t that common, but some fitness enthusiasts include that in their routine.
However, when you step on the treadmill laterally, hold on to the bars for support. Adjust the speed to a manageable level before the beginning side shuffles. Ideally, you should do side shuffles for five minutes on each side before taking rest, but that depends on the speed at which you’re going.
6) Adding Resistance
Treadmill exercises, in themselves, are energy consuming. You can increase the calories burned by adding resistance to the exercises. You can add ankle weights or hold a light dumbbell while walking or running.
Bottom Line
Treadmill exercises are good for cardiovascular health as well as for weight loss, but don't overdo them. You must stop if you feel nauseous or dizzy at any point.