Cardio Guide

Treadmill: Interval Training

Doing interval training on treadmill is one of the most efficient, heart-healthy workouts styles, and it will also strengthen your body and help your burn calories much faster than with standard, low-intensity workouts.

Interval treadmill workouts are high intensity workouts which are immediately followed by a short recovery period. All the workouts have to be done following a certain pattern and the trick here is to not spoil your body by resting too much. This is what makes interval training a good workout regimen because you are constantly being pushed to work harder than usual. Treadmill interval workouts work by adjusting your speed constantly.

Treadmill Interval Workout Routine

Warm up your muscles with some stretches See: Stretching Exercises then begin your treadmill routine by walking or jogging slowly. Because interval training will demand that you alternate between high exertion and low exertion it's important to be properly warmed up.

The speed you use for your warmup will be your base speed that you return to between intervals, so choose wisely, and again, don't push yourself needlessly. Your recovery speed will be 33% faster than your warmup speed. So, if you start off with a warm up speed of 3.0 mph then your recovery speed would be 4.0 mph. After one minute you increase the speed by .5 mph and go back to your recovery speed of 4.0 mph after another 60 seconds. You should gradually increase the speed for each interval every minute to 5.0, 5.5,6.0, 6.5 and so on, but do not forget to return to your recovery speed between intervals. Most people will want to do 5-10 intervals per workout session. Interval training is meant to be intense and to increase your bodies oxygen consumption for the entire day, it should be the last exercise you do on an off day if not the only. Most people will want to do 1-2 interval workouts per week.

Setting Your Intervals in Treadmill Interval Training

The length of your intervals depends on your experience and general fitness level. One minute on and 2 minutes off (recovery) is advisable for novices, but if you've never exercised before you may want to try 30 second intervals. Advanced users can try out 2-3 minute intervals with 1 minute or less recovery time for their workouts. 1 or two minutes may not seem like much, but your goal is to at some point in your work out push yourself to the very limit of what your body can manage for the full period of the interval.

Remember, the worlds fastest runner can sprint 100m in 10 seconds, and if you were to sprint all out could you keep it up for 6 - 18 times as long? It will take some experimentation but within one or two sessions you should have a good idea of what your body is capable of and you can begin slowly increasing interval length and intensity.

The important thing is that your recovery period should be kept as short as possible. The longer you do this kind of wor out, the more fit you become, and the shorter the recovery period needed by your body. The goal of interval training is to push your body to its limits so moderation is important. Remember to only do 1-2 interval workouts per week as part of an overall workout plan.