As we discussed in last week’s post on Why Intervals Workouts Work, switching up your speed is not the only way to add intervals to your workout, adding incline is just as beneficial. For those of you who are beginners shouldn’t be hitting a speed of 10mph right off the get go. Or those who simply just feel like taking their workout easy that day and do not prefer a heart-pounding high speed workout but still want to burn some calories. This is where walking at an incline becomes the perfect workout for you.
According to an article titled Treadmills: 13 Advantages and Disadvantages, adding incline into your treadmill workout helps give you a higher calorie burn by incorporating and sculpting more muscles. Lifting your legs higher makes your lower abs have to contract and work harder in order to lift your knees at that steep incline.
LiveStrong also talks about this in their online article Will Walking on a High Incline Treadmill Burn More Calories & Tone stating that when walking on an incline not only are your legs muscles more activated, but “you’re also working your core muscles around your waistline and your upper-body muscles as you stride forward.” Your legs and core muscles are being activated more during an incline walk compared to walking on a flat surface, so this results in “firmer more toned muscles in your legs and core.”
The LiveStrong article went on to state that not only does walking on an incline help tone your muscles, but it can also increase the intensity of your workout, so they recommend being cautious not to over train. If you’ve never added incline into your workout before, only add a 1 to 5 percent increase to begin with and work your way up to greater inclines as your body and muscles begin to adapt.
Don’t think that just because you are only adding a 1 to 5 percent increase that you won’t be getting any benefits and that it’s merely wasting your time, the article states that “even minor increases in the treadmill incline can produce significant increases in the number of calories you burn.” They go on to give an example of a 180-lb person who is walking at 3.5mph on a flat surface will burn roughly 311 calories an hour. Yet if that same person where to walk at a medium incline going the same speed, they would burn 57 percent more calories at a total of 490!
So if you want to burn about 180 calories more for walking on a treadmill, be sure to add incline! Check out NordicTrack’s X9i Incline Trainer that can increase that 180 even more so with its ability to incline up to 40%. At that incline, you’ll burn 5X the amount of calories you can by walking on a flat surface. If you are beginning to like what you hear, you’re in luck because this beauty is on sale! Usually $2,999 it is now only $1,804. Sale ends Friday, so be sure to head over to NordicTrack.com soon and check it out for yourself!
The once you’ve received your incline treadmill, here is a great Walking Treadmill Workout from blogger PBFingers that uses inclines at different intervals to give you a high calorie burning, core toning treadmill workout.
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Try it out and let us know what you think!
Do you ever add incline to your treadmill workouts?! What are your thoughts?
Can you feel the burn in your legs?! Do you notice the contraction in your lower abs with every step?!