Shake up your cardio routine and challenge your body with this indoor treadmill hike — the perfect way to stay in shape for warm-weather activities! Once you've completed this 45-minute workout, be sure to do a lengthy cooldown sequence to help prevent your legs from being too sore the next day.
Ready to take that hike indoors? Keep reading for our 45-minute treadmill plan.
We all know that running uphill is tough, but going downhill comes with its own set of challenges. With proper technique and a little cross training, you can keep your knees happy while flying down hills. Watch this video to learn how best to approach downhill sections of runs and races.
Be sure to watch our video on how to conquer running uphill too.
Running uphill can be daunting! We know that fighting gravity as you climb the incline requires serious amounts of energy, but, like with many things in life, there is a technique to conquering hills. Watch this training video and learn how to tackle the incline. Put these tips into practice, and you will rock the hills on race day.
Some runners dread hills and actively avoid them, which if you live in the SF Bay Area can be a rather difficult task. But by skipping the incline you miss the opportunity to build both speed and stamina while giving your booty a little extra kicking. Plus running hills makes the flats feel like a breeze. If you're not into running outside, you can still run hills with this rolling hill treadmill.
As always, feel free to play around with the elements — speed, incline, and duration — to make the workout suit your needs. Since this is a hill workout, I do think it better to slow your pace but keep the incline up.
The changing weather of Fall inspired me to hit the wooded trails near my house, and the steep inclines inspired me to do hill repeats. They're great for strengthening the legs, as well as building speed and endurance. If hilly terrain is hard to come by in your neck of the woods, try this version on a treadmill instead. This workout is moderately paced so feel free to speed up or slow down, depending on your ability and mood.
Continue reading to see this 40-minute workout and find out how many calories you'll burn.
Whether or not you love the treadmill incline as much as Jennifer Aniston does, increasing it is an efficient and smart way to get the most out of your run. Here are three important reasons to up the incline on your treadmill.
Calorie burn: Upping the incline, even just a little bit, will help you burn a few extra calories with just a little more effort. Going from a zero-percent incline to five-percent incline burns over 100 more calories when running for 30 minutes, no matter your pace. Check out our chart to see just how many calories running on an incline burns. You might be pleasantly motivated.
Bikini bum: Kill two birds with one stone by working your lower body while raising your heartbeat, just in time to show off all your hard work on the beach. Just like running hills or hiking, running on the treadmill is a great exercise for toning your glutes and quads.
Better runner: If you've never run outside before, hopping off the treadmill and onto the road can be a wake-up call, since running outside isn't as easy as running on a flat, consistent treadmill. But if you increase the incline whenever you run inside, you'll be amazed at how much better your endurance and stamina become.
Of course, you'll really feel it when you start upping the incline more than a few percentages (it'll affect your pace as well, so take it slower if needed), but you'll be glad you did. Ready to start? Here's an under-20-minute incline treadmill workout if you're pressed for time, or try this rolling hills treadmill workout instead.
Pumping up the incline on the treadmill not only tones your tush and legs, increases your endurance, and can help you improve your speed, it also burns crazy calories — significantly more than with no incline. Need a little more proof? Check out the chart below for some inspiring numbers.
*All calculations are based on a 130-pound woman.
There are plenty of benefits to running uphill, but when you're racing don't take that incline too fast. A new study from Down Under found that pushing the pace while running uphill can hurt you over the long haul. It tires you out and ultimately slows you down. Australian researchers also found that running hard up the incline prevented folks from going hard on the downhill side — a great place to pick up speed, and possibly gain time, since gravity is pulling along.
To prevent overtiring yourself, focus on maintaining your effort rather than maintaining your pace. Shorten your stride to downshift, just like a cyclist would, when you hit the hill. Taking the hills with a little less gusto than you did on your training runs will help with energy management, which is especially important when competing in longer distances — regular, prerace hill training is the time to push yourself. Hopefully running hard up inclines prior to race day will make the hills less daunting after crossing the start line.
I know that I should embrace the incline while I'm running, but most of the time the thought of running hills and trudging along an angled treadmill fills me with unease. The more I think about it, though, the more I realize I should be loving the hills — and why you should, too. Here's why:
More benefits of hill running after the break.
If you're stuck indoors, treadmills are an excellent way to get in some cardio time — minus wet weather or pollen counts. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced treadmill user, here is everything you need to know to get the most out of this favorite cardio machine.
