Don’t underestimate the power of a smart treadmill workout for burning a lot of fat. I’m a personal trainer who not only uses this very popular exercise equipment, but I have my clients using it all the time.
How much fat can treadmill workouts burn?
A LOT. Don’t assume that the moving tread cheats you of efficacy. You must work to prevent pulling a George Jetson (i.e., getting tossed backwards and off the tread).
If you still think a moving tread subtracts workload, put the machine up to 10 mph and see how long you last – without cheating by grabbing the bar!
Put the speed at 6 mph, incline at 10 mph, and jog (no holding on). How long can you last? If the settings are high enough, a treadmill will give you a terrific fat burning workout.
How to maximize fat burning in a treadmill workout
Do high intensity interval training. This can involve speed only with a zero incline; speed variations with an incline that’s the same throughout; the same speed but incline variations; or, a combination of speed and incline changes.
“HIIT” will keep your body’s fat burning mechanism accelerated for hours after the workout is completed. This is called the after-burn.
Won’t lack of wind resistance interfere with burning fat on a treadmill?
The presence or absence of wind resistance produces a nominal effect unless you’re running into 30 mph sustained winds. Sometimes there seems to be no breeze outdoors, anyways.
Again, it goes back to the treadmill’s settings. Set the machine at the highest values possible that you can move on for only 30 seconds as your baseline high intensity interval. For some, that’s 12 mph. For others, it’s 8 mph.
Some people can walk 3.5 mph sustained at 15 percent incline without holding on. Others won’t last beyond one minute at this pace. Find YOUR intensity limits and perform the scientifically proven, fat burning HIIT.
Comments