subject: Interval Treadmill Workouts: Extract the Maximum and Eliminate Boredom [print this page] Interval Treadmill Workouts: Extract the Maximum and Eliminate Boredom
Have you reached a point in your treadmill work out where you just see no more progress? If you are considering quitting treadmill workouts because of sole boredom you experience lately then maybe it's time to change things a bit.
The following advices will help you bust boredom and burn more calories in the progress. The secret is in changing your speed, resistance and incline during the workout.
The reason why you are not seeing your progress is that you have probably been using the same program for too long. At the moment you jump on a treadmill your body knows what to expect. By doing easy cardio workouts you are always within your aerobic threshold and you never stress your muscles to the point where fast-twitch muscle fibers are activated. With this type of exercise regime you are only improving your cardiovascular endurance, also an important element of the overall body fitness.
But this time you will surprise your body with high intensity interval trainings, also known as HIIT.
HIIT training is designed to get past your aerobic threshold and get into anaerobic threshold where you are utilizing your fast-twitch muscle tissue so that it will lead to increased metabolic energy expenditure. With this kind of training you are pushing your body to grab deeper into energy storages, also known as fat.
So how to do you perform HIIT workout?
You will start treadmill workout like you did before because your body needs to warm up first. After 5-10 minutes the most, you will gradually increase your intensity during the next 20 seconds until you reach your maximum. Your maximum should be the point where you cannot last for more than 2 minutes with the same intensity, 1 minute should be ideal. Anything longer than 2 minutes is still in the range of aerobic exercise. You can set the treadmill incline and resistance to achieve this. When you feel like you have just conquered the mountain and that you are about to faint, slow down to the walking speed but don't stop. Take a couple of minutes to recover and repeat the whole process again for 5-8 cycles.
The whole HIIT workout should not last longer than 30 minutes when you count in the high intensity and the recovery periods. It is important to keep your hands off of the side rails during workouts because you are limiting the effects of it.
With HIIT training you are activating larger group of muscles, and by reaching your anaerobic threshold, your metabolism will be more active and burn more calories even hours after workout.
To eliminate the boredom, you can experiment a little with the techniques that will limit you to one minute of maximum intensity periods. You can for example combine power-walking and your fastest running in the same HIIT session by setting the various speed, resistance and incline on a treadmill.
Do you want to extract more out of your exercises?
If so, download my free guides on how to burn calories and stay fit forever.
