The repetitive movement of treadmill walking or running may have you turning away from this valuable piece of exercise equipment. You may need to vary your treadmill routine in order to challenge your body and your mind. Interval training, which alternates time periods of work and recovery, may be the addition to your workout routine that helps you over your plateau.
Cardiovascular
Treadmill exercise is considered a cardiovascular workout. Walking and running increase your heart rate to promote oxygen flow throughout your body. Your breathing rate increases as you exercise on a treadmill, which brings more oxygen into your body. Usually, treadmill exercise is performed at a steady state. You get on the treadmill, set your pace, and keep that pace until you complete your desired duration.
Interval
You can use interval training to vary your treadmill workouts. Instead of maintaining a steady speed, interval training uses increasing and decreasing speeds. The American Council on Exercise says that interval training may help you avoid overuse injuries from regularly completing your daily workout in the same manner. As you increase your speed for your intervals, your body switches from using oxygen to using carbohydrates as its energy source. Your carbohydrate energy stores are designed for quick bursts of activity and not for those of longer durations.
Speed
One way to include intervals in your treadmill workout is to increase your speed. You can walk for two minutes and then jog for two minutes and keep your intervals the same throughout the workout. You can also add more recovery such as three minutes of walking to one minute of jogging. Your speed intervals may also be based on how you feel. As you increase your speed, continue jogging until you cannot jog anymore. When your speed slows, walk until you feel you are prepared to jog again.
Incline
One advantage of an electric treadmill over walking outdoors is that you control the incline. You do not have to wait until you find a hill along your outdoor route. You can use incline intervals in your treadmill workout routine. After walking without an incline for three or four minutes, increase the incline to five or six percent, and walk for two minutes before lowering the incline to one or two percent. As your workout continues, aim to add higher inclines during your intervals. You may have to decrease your speed as you increase your intervals.
