When you’ve got a treadmill in your home, you have everything your need to get a variety of low-impact workouts that will boost your fitness and burn calories rain or shine. When you make use of the incline function of the treadmill, you are able to significantly ramp up the intensity level – and the results.
Here are 10 benefits of walking on an incline treadmill for 30 minutes every day.
1. Muscle Building
When you walk on a treadmill with a flat running bed, your quads, glutes, calves, and hamstrings get a pretty good workout. But, when you set the incline on the running bed, your muscles are having to work a lot harder.
A study showed that a 9-degree incline on the treadmill made the glutes work 345 percent harder, while the hamstrings had to work 635 percent harder. The muscle activity was also seen to be greatly increased when the treadmill was set on an incline. Simply setting the incline at 3 degrees is enough to boost muscle activation.
Walking on an incline treadmill is especially good for building your calf muscles. This is an area that a lot of people find very hard to develop. So, if you are a bodybuilder who is struggling with calf development from your regular resistance training routine, I recommend spending some time on the incline treadmill every week to bring them up.
2. Core Activation
When you walk on the treadmill on an incline, you are forced to engage your core muscles in order to stabilize your body on an angle. This core stabilization will make your whole midsection tighter and stronger which will, in turn, help to alleviate lower back pain.
3. Increased Calorie Burn
When you do your treadmill workout on an incline, your heart and lungs will have to work harder. This will require more energy in the form of calories. Most people do not realize how significant that increase can be.
As an example, if you are a 130lb woman walking on a flat treadmill for half an hour at a speed of 4 miles per hour, you will burn around 120 calories. However, if you were to set the incline at 10 percent, your calorie burn at the same speed of 4 miles per hour will burn 280 calories.
That shows how ramping up the incline can make your session far more productive in terms of calorie burn. In order to maximize your calorie burn, do not hold onto the side rails when you are walking on the running bed. You should also swing your arms naturally when you are walking.
4. Cardiovascular Health
When you walk on an incline, your heart rate will be more elevated than when you are on the flat. That is an indication that your heart is having to work harder in order to pump the blood around your body. The stronger contractions required will make your heart stronger. As a result, your heart health will be much improved and you will have a far lower likelihood of getting a cardiac disease.
5. Bone Strength
Walking on a treadmill incline will be better for your bone health than walking on the flat. This helps to offset the natural bone decrease that occurs with aging. This is especially beneficial for women, who have a higher rate of osteoporosis than men do.
6. Time-Saving
Working out on an incline is more productive than walking on a flat treadmill. In fact, you will get as much if not more benefit from walking at an incline for 30 minutes as you would walking for an entire hour on a flat surface. That time efficiency could make all the difference between getting your cardio workout in and missing your workout session for the day.
7. Workout Recovery
If you’ve recently had a heavy leg workout with weights, walking on an incline treadmill is a good way to help with the post-workout recovery process. Incline treadmill walking will provide a transition between the intense resistance of your workout and inactivity. This can help to lessen the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) so that you don’t experience so much muscle soreness between workouts.
8. Metabolism Boost
The intense workout that you get from walking or running on a treadmill will boost your metabolism. That means that you will be burning more calories hours after your workout. This is a result of the EPOC effect. EPOC stands for excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. The extra oxygen that your body takes in immediately after your workout requires more energy in the form of calories to be moved around the body, causing an increase in your metabolism.
9. Cardiovascular and Muscular Endurance
Incline walking will challenge both your muscular and cardiovascular endurance. This refers to your body’s ability to keep going. Your improved heart, lung, and muscular endurance will increase your body’s ability to prolong physical activity, which will allow you to sustain exercise for longer, building endurance. This will flow over to your every day so that you’ll be able to handle emergency situations, such as running after a bus, with ease.
Conclusion
Making use of the incline function on your treadmill offers a whole host of benefits that will make you a fitter, stronger person. It will offer lower impact workouts while at the same time ramping up the intensity of your aerobic exercise sessions. If you haven’t already added 30-minute incline treadmill sessions to your exercise routine, why not give it a try?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best incline angle for a treadmill workout?
When it comes to the incline angle on a treadmill, it pays to start slow and build up as you get used to it. Many people are surprised as to how much harder it is to walk on the incline. I recommend starting at the lowest setting and working your way up gradually to a maximum of 15 percent.
What is the 12-3-30 Workout?
The 12-3-30 workout is a popular training program for weight loss that involves doing 30 minutes of incline walking at an angle of 12 percent and a walking speed of 3 miles per hour.
