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FITNESS & LIFESTYLE FOR BELLY FAT LOSS

Treadmill Interval Training

What is Interval Training?

If you are starting to get bored with your treadmill workouts, or you’ve noticed that you’re not losing as much belly fat as you want, it may be because you’ve gotten stuck in a rut.

You know you’re in a rut if you program the same speed into the treadmill for each workout and then dutifully run for 30 minutes or whatever time frame you’re used to. If you never vary your pace or timeframe, no wonder your mind and body aren’t impressed.

Instead, expand your fitness horizons and add some interval training to freshen up your treadmill workouts and help you keep burning belly fat.

Interval training is all about surprises. Basically, an interval workout consists of regularly changing the speed or incline of the treadmill throughout the workout. When your body is caught off guard, it must work harder to compensate. This means you’ll burn more calories and more belly fat. You’ll also drastically improve your cardiovascular fitness and may even see gains in your athletic ability.

Shaking up your treadmill routine is also good for your mind. Banish the monotonous running and infuse your treadmill workout with varying components to keep you interested and in tune with your body.

Interval Training Workouts

So what does an interval workout actually look like? It depends on your fitness level, but here are three basic 30-minute interval training workouts to get you started.

Speed Demon

  1. Run one minute at top speed
  2. Walk two minutes at easy pace
  3. Repeat ten times

Stair Climb

  1. Start at an easy jog
  2. Every two minutes increase your speed by .5 miles per hour
  3. Increase every two minutes for 14 minutes
  4. Stay at the top speed for two minutes
  5. Go back down the staircase, decreasing your speed by .5 miles per hour every two minutes until you get back down to the speed you started at

Jog/Run/Walk

  1. Jog at a medium pace for two minutes
  2. Run at a challenging pace (about 80% of your max speed) for two minutes
  3. Walk at an easy pace for one minute
  4. Repeat ten times

These three workouts are just examples of how you can use different speeds and inclines to push your body to new heights and keep your mind engaged in your workout. Utilizing interval training will help you burn belly fat faster and will make each workout more rewarding overall.

When programming an interval training workout, it doesn’t matter what speed you use as long as it is challenging to you. If your fastest run is a jog, then that’s where you need to be until your conditioning improves. Also, make sure that you are healthy enough to engage in interval training. We highly recommend that all individuals get a doctor’s approval before engaging in any type of new exercise programming.

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