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How To Plan A Treadmill Interval Workout

By: Wendy Crittenden

Break Studios Contributing Writer

Learn how to plan a treadmill interval workout and watch the pounds melt off. Treadmill interval workouts can be an effective way to burn fat and build up your general fitness level. These workouts have grown in popularity because it provides a safe and controlled environment for exercise or it can be done right in your home. Treadmills can also tell you how many calories you have burned, how many miles you have gone and even track your heart rate. It has become a valuable tool for many people who are trying to track their weight loss progress.

  1. Depending on your current fitness level, you may want to start out slow and build up your cardio vascular system. Any treadmill workout should consist of a ten minute warm up with the activity that you are planning to do.
  2. Increase your pace for five minutes and maintain 70 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate threshold. This is determined by subtracting your age from 220 beats per minutes (bpm). For example, if you are 45 years old, your bpm will be 175. Therefore, 60 percent of that is 105 bpm.
  3. The next five minutes should be slowed to 60 to 70 percent of maximum heart rate threshold. Try to maintain a pace within this zone for five minutes.
  4. Increase your intensity again to 70 to 85 percent for the next five minutes. Remember to maintain this pace for the full five minutes for maximum results.
  5. Perform one more five-minute interval at 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate threshold. At this point you will be concluding your workout, so start to slow down your pace and prepare for a warm down.
  6. A cool down should be performed after any interval workout. Slowing your pace down gradually for five to ten minutes will allow you to recover slowly. Your breathing and heart rate should start to return to almost normal.

Never just stop working out without properly doing a warm down. It’s puts unneeded stress on the body and heart and makes it more difficult to recover. Treadmill interval training will help to maximize weight loss and it combines high intensity level training with recovery periods to increase the number of calories burned. This is a basic treadmill interval-training workout that, if done correctly, will provide you with maximum weight loss results.

Posted on: Sep. 02, 2010