Interval Training on the Treadmill

Have you hit a plateau in your fitness or weight loss journey? You’re not alone. It is not uncommon to get into a consistent workout routine, with the same exercises day after day. However, our bodies can easily adapt to a specific routine, and improvement in fitness, strength and weight loss is hard to come by.

The key to getting the most out of your time spent working out is interval training. You first need a fitness base, which can be established after a few months of consistent training. Once that base is established, adding variation in different aspects of your routine will keep your body from becoming comfortable with your workout, and therefore, maximizing your results.

Interval training burns more calories, and will help improve both strength and speed. Breaking up the monotony of your workout with intervals will also help you stay motivated and keep from growing bored with your existing workout routine.

Interval training on the treadmill can be accomplished a variety of ways. Increase speed, intensity and incline for a short period, following those short “bursts” with a short recovery. Here is a sample treadmill interval workout:

Interval Training Workout
Warm-up, 10 minutes at 3.0 mph
Gradually increase the setting to 4.5 mph and allow your body to adjust to this speed. Then:
Run for one minute at 4.5 mph
Recover for one minute at 3.5 mph
Run for one minute at 5.0 mph
Recover for one minute at 3.5 mph
Run for one minute at 5.5 mph
Recover for one minute at 3.5 mph
Continue to increase the speed at each interval and repeat this pattern for 10 to 20 minutes.
Cool down for 10 minutes at 3.0 mph.

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