Despite my overall love for running, I’ll admit that it’s not alway thaaat appealing when I’m half asleep! Actually, no let me rephrase that: it’s not appealing at all!! The idea of walking, on the other hand, seemed slightly more palatable this morning. To get the best of both worlds, i.e. endorphins combined with a decent calorie burn, I turned to the next best thing…low & behold: incline training.
Last week I bigged up interval training so it’s only fair that I show some love to incline training on a treadmill. As described by some random site online, the incline feature on a treadmill is ‘intended to mimic uphill climbing whereby speed is kept at a nice slow and steady pace.’ If you concentrate hard enough and really ‘hike’ up the incline, you kinda feel like you’re conquering Mount Kilamanjaro 😆 ! Jokes/visualization aside, incline training brings a fair amount to the table. Did you know that slightly adding an incline to your workout can:
- Increase your overall calorie burn
- Work leg muscles differently and more efficiently than training on a level surface
- Provide a great cardio workout without the need to blast the speed
- More closely replicate running/walking outdoors and is hence ideal when training for a race
- Stretch the calves and help build long, lean calf muscles
- Sculpt and build strength in your ankles, thighs, and bootay. The steeper the incline, the greater the benefit.
- Eliminates much of the impact that walking or running outdoors produces
And my favorite one of them all:
- Allow for variation and helps prevent boredom!
My workout this morning can definitely testify to the last point. Before I knew it, I had slammed out 45 minutes on the treadmill, I was drippin’ in sweat (and hence I had all the boys checkin’ me out 😉 ) and it was time for breakfast- hallelujah 😆 !
Here’s what I based my workout on this morning…it may come in handy next time you feel like sprucin’ it up:
Time (minutes) | Incline | Speed (km/h) |
0-2 | 4 | 6.5 |
2-3 | 5 | 6.5 |
3-5 | 8 | 6.5 |
5-10 | 1 | 10.6 |
*I repeated this until I hit 45 minutes.
Loving the refernce to African mountains in your blog today!
I also find the ‘random hill’ profile on a treadmill great for a mixed incline workout – good variety of inclines (& descents) helping you to work up a sweat. Another thing I do when walking inclines on a treadmill is to do it with 1kg or 2kg dumbelss or wrist weights – great for an added kick!
I love how you vary your workout.
You are a speed demon! Hills always make my legs scream!
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